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THE    MAIN    POINTS. 

A  Study  in  Christian  Belief. 

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THE  MAIN  POINTS 


A   STUDY   IN    CHRISTIAN   BELIEF 


BY 

CHARLES  REYNOLDS  BROWN 

PASTOR  OF  THE  FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH,   OAKLAND,  CALIFORNIA 


"Now  of  the  things  which  we  have  spoken,  this  is  the  sum." 

—HEBREWS  vin:  L 


THE   WHITAKER    &    RAY    COMPANY 
(INCORPORATED; 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL. 
1899 


COPYRIGHT,  1899 
BY 

CHARLES  REYNOLDS  BROWN 


To 
SAMUEL   T.  ALEXANDER 

In  appreciation  of  his  personal  friendship,  and  of  his 

generous  loyalty  in  all  the  work 

of  our  Church 


PEEFACE. 


This  book  is  not  intended  as  a  treatise  on  systematic 
theology.  It  came  about  in  this  way.  In  this  large 
parish  I  was  continually  meeting  religiously  reared  peo- 
ple who  had  lost  confidence  in  some  of  the  doctrinal 
statements  accepted  by  them  in  earlier  days  as  being  the 
very  words  of  eternal  life.  They  had  an  uneasy  feel- 
ing because  "the  traditional  phrases  of  religious  speech 
did  not  set  forth  with  unstrained  naturalness  and  trans- 
parent sincerity  the  facts  of  their  religious  lives."  Some 
of  them  had  therefore  thrown  all  such  phrases  away  and 
were  practically  offering  their  devotions  at  the  altar 
of  a  revered  but  "Unknown  God."  Others  with  more 
conservative  instincts  retained  the  phrases,  but  with 
a  silent  yearning  to  have  them  interpreted  anew,  and 
thus  compelled  to  yield  their  intended  help  for  daily 
life.  These  people  knew  that  within  a  comparatively 
few  years  many  of  "the  great  inherited,  historical  state- 
ments" of  religion  had  come  to  be  deemed  inadequate: 
that  consequently  such  truths  were  being  restated  in 
terms  of  actual  life:  and  they  were  asking  what  this 
more  modern  way  of  thinking  about  religious  matters 
had  to  say  directly  about  certain  cardinal  doctrines. 

It  seemed  wise  therefore  to  announce  a  series  of  ten 
doctrinal  addresses  on  the  somewhat  ambitious  theme, 
"The  Message  of  Modem  Orthodoxy."  The  special 

(7) 


PREFACE. 


This  book  is  not  intended  as  a  treatise  on  systematic 
theology.  It  came  about  in  this  way.  In  this  large 
parish  I  was  continually  meeting  religiously  reared  peo- 
ple who  had  lost  confidence  in  some  of  the  doctrinal 
statements  accepted  by  them  in  earlier  days  as  being  the 
very  words  of  eternal  life.  They  had  an  uneasy  feel- 
ing because  "the  traditional  phrases  of  religious  speech 
did  not  set  forth  with  unstrained  naturalness  and  trans- 
parent sincerity  the  facts  of  their  religious  lives."  Some 
of  them  had  therefore  thrown  all  such  phrases  away  and 
were  practically  offering  their  devotions  at  the  altar 
of  a  revered  but  "Unknown  God."  Others  with  more 
conservative  instincts  retained  the  phrases,  but  with 
a  silent  yearning  to  have  them  interpreted  anew,  and 
thus  compelled  to  yield  their  intended  help  for  daily 
life.  These  people  knew  that  within  a  comparatively 
few  years  many  of  "the  great  inherited,  historical  state- 
ments" of  religion  had  come  to  be  deemed  inadequate: 
that  consequently  such  truths  were  being  restated  in 
terms  of  actual  life:  and  they  were  asking  what  this 
more  modern  way  of  thinking  about  religious  matters 
had  to  say  directly  about  certain  cardinal  doctrines. 

It  seemed  wise  therefore  to  announce  a  series  of  ten 
doctrinal  addresses  on  the  somewhat  ambitious  theme, 
"The  Message  of  Modem  Orthodoxy."  The  special 

(7) 


8  PREFACE. 

topics  named  were  the  titles  of  the  ten  chapters  in  this 
book.  It  might  have  seemed  risky  to  offer  so  long  a 
course  in  doctrine  to  evening  congregations  in  this  busy, 
bustling  western  world  of  ours  that  now  more  than  ever 
is  looking  out  the  Golden  Gate  and  sighing  for  new 
material  worlds  to  conquer.  But  somewhat  to  my  sur- 
prise and  greatly  to  my  encouragement,  the  congrega- 
tions were  unusually  large  and  they  steadily  grew  larger 
throughout  the  course.  This  fact  strengthened  me  in 
the  conviction  that  the  people  want  our  line  of  goods; 
they  want  to  hear  religion  taught  from  the  pulpit  in 
downright,  thoroughgoing  fashion.  The  all-round 
preacher  will  naturally  aim  to  set  all  our  concrete  hu- 
man relations  in  harmony  with  the  will  of  God:  he 
will  not  forget  for  a  moment  that  "the  field  is  the 
world" — the  place  where  religion  is  to  grow  is  the  "big, 
blooming,  buzzing,"  confusing  world  where  we  are  set 
down ;  but  the  staple  of  his  preaching  could  well  be  a 
spiritual  message  to  the  inner  life.  The  people  might 
dispense  with  much  that  is  retailed  in  the  pulpit  be- 
cause they  hear  these  sociological  and  political  prob- 
lems discussed  elsewhere  by  experts,  but  if  we  pastors 
do  not  bring  them  the  truths  of  personal  and  vital  reli- 
gion, who  will?  The  good  gold  of  our  message  may 
be  coined  in  the  mints  of  our  own  day,  so  that  its 
image  and  superscription  shall  indicate  that  the  men 
who  bring  it  have  felt  in  their  own  lives  the  need  they 
seek  to  help,  but  the  real  value  of  it  will  come  from  the 
fact  that  its  substance  is  that  same  good  gold  of  eternal 
religious  truth  which  has  been  standard  in  all  the  ages. 
After  the  course  of  addresses  was  concluded,  I  re- 
ceived many  letters  and  personal  requests  urging  me 


PREFACE.  9 

to  put  them  in  print,  as  a  brief,  simple  statement  of 
Christian  doctrine,  and  I  have  ventured  to  do  so.  They 
were  delivered  without  manuscript,  and  in  writing  them 
out  for  the  publisher  I  have  omitted  some  illustrations 
and  paragraphs  more  suited  to  direct  appeal,  and  I  have 
inserted  many  sentences  here  and  there  (chiefly  quota- 
tions) which  were  not  spoken.  In  large  part,  however, 
the  forms  of  personal  address  have  been  retained  with 
the  feeling,  so  well  expressed  by  another  pastor  in  his 
preface,  "that  whatever  the  diction  may  lose  in  finish, 
might  be  compensated  by  those  qualities  which  appear 
when  a  man  in  earnest  concerning  the  real  experiences 
of  life  reads  the  pages  of  his  mind  in  direct  speech  with 
his  fellows." 

I  have  been  assured  that  these  addresses  were  useful 
when  delivered,  and  I  cherish  the  hope  that  they  may 
now  render  a  service  in  book  form.  It  may  seem  rather 
presumptuous  for  a  man  to  attempt  to  deal  with  ten 
capital  themes  in  theology  within  the  limits  of  a  single 
small  volume.  But  these  pages  were  not  written  for 
theologians,  nor  for  students  of  metaphysics,  for  whom 
there  are  other  books  which  will  serve  their  ends  as  this 
one  does  not  attempt  to  do.  These  pages  were  written 
for  the  busy  people.  The  laymen  in  our  cities  have 
more  to  do  and  less  time  to  read  than  had  their  grand- 
fathers. As  a  matter  of  fact,  not  many  of  them  find 
opportunity  to  read  such  standard  books  as  Liddon's 
or  Gore's  Bampton  Lectures  on  "The  Divinity  of  Our 
Lord";  or  such  works  on  the  "Atonement"  as  Dale's  or 
McLeod  Campbell's;  or  such  careful  and  scholarly  dis- 
cussion of  the  authority  of  the  Bible  as  that  found  in 
Professor  Ladd's  "Doctrine  of  Sacred  Scripture."  Thou- 


10  PREFACE. 

sands  of  them  are  not  familiar  with  the  noble  work 
done  by  Driver,  Bruce,  McGiffert,  Fisher,  Newman 
Smyth  and  other  able  writers  in  the  International  Theo- 
logical Library;  or  with  such  books  as  Fairbairn's  "The 
Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,"  or  the  "Outline 
of  Christian  Theology,"  by  Dr.  William  Newton  Clarke. 
The  pastors  of  the  churches  are  familiar  with  whole 
libraries  of  fresh  and  stimulating  books,  that  owing 
to  the  stress  of  other  matters  upon  their  attention  have 
not  come  into  the  hands  of  the  majority  of  our  laymen. 
There  is  also  much  good  grain  being  harvested  every 
month  from  the  work  done  in  theological  reconstruction 
in  the  pages  of  the  reviews.  If  we  can  take  some  of 
the  results  of  our  wider  reading  in  doctrinal  theology 
and  bring  them  in  straightforward,  everyday  language 
to  the  attention  of  the  busy  people  in  our  churches,  we 
shall  render  them  a  permanent  service. 

The  main  teaching  of  these  pages  is  not  original  with 
me  or  with  any  particular  man  or  men.  I  have  phrased 
it  according  to  my  habit  and  method,  but  the  message 
is  one  that  is  being  delivered  widely  in  our  Christian 
world.  In  such  brief  compass  there  must  be  a  lack  of 
that  elaborate  and  thorough  handling  of  august  themes 
which  one  finds  in  truly  theological  books,  but  even 
though  the  twenty  dollar  gold  pieces  are  converted  into 
smaller  and  less  valuable  change,  they  may  possibly 
attain  a  further  usefulness  in  that  they  can  be  taken 
and  used  by  busy  men  who  make  their  purchases  of  doc- 
trinal reading  in  small  quantities. 

In  a  time  of  transition  and  restatement  like  the  pres- 
ent, no  public  teacher  of  religion  can  speak  his  mind 
frankly  and  briefly,  leaving  out  those  explanations  and 


PREFACE.  11 

qualifications  that  come  in  to  modify  or  round  out,  and 
expect  to  carry  the  assent  of  all  the  company  with  him. 
But  the  richer  and  more  helpful  understanding  of  the 
great  truths  we  live  by  will  not  come  by  halting  silence 
or  by  timid  distrust  of  fellow  students  with  whom  we 
may  not  quite  keep  step  — it  will  come  rather  as  each 
Christian  man,  striving  to  do  the  will  of  God  and  to 
know  the  doctrine,  gives  out  openly  and  honestly  the 
best  he  has. 

CHAELES  E.  BEOWN. 
Oakland,  California. 

June  25th,  1899. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter.  Page 

I.  The  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 15 

II.  The  Atonement  31 

III.  The  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 53 

IV.  The  Matter  of  Conversion 67 

V.     Salvation  by   Faith 81 

VI.  The  Authority  of  the  Bible 93 

VII.  The  Philosophy  of  Prayer 117 

VIII.  The  Christian  Church 135 

IX.     The  Hope  of  Immortality 151 

X.     The  Last   Judgment 167 

(13) 


I. 

THE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

In  all  our  communities  we  find  an  increasing  number 
of  people  who  desire  some  kind  of  a  working  faith  to 
live  by,  but  who  have  broken  with  the  traditional  state- 
ments of  doctrinal  religion  taught  them  in  early  life, 
and  consequently  they  count  themselves  outside  the  pale 
of  evangelical  Christianity.  Their  quarrel  is  not  with 
the  ethics  of  Christianity  —  these  they  approve,  even 
where  they  do  not  personally  practice  them — but  with 
certain  statements  of  dogma  which  they  cannot  honestly 
profess  to  accept.  They  do  not  attach  themselves  to  the 
so-called  "liberal  churches,"  which,  so  far  from  drawing 
in  all  these  people,  are  losing  rather  than  gaining  num- 
bers. They  desire  something  fuller,  richer  and  warmer 
than  what  is  found  in  any  type  of  ethical  culture;  and 
they  really  look  to  the  great  branches  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  to  speak  to  them,  in  the  tongue  and  the 
mood  wherein  they  live,  a  sure  word  of  life.  If  our 
orthodox  churches  can  recognize  this  multitude  standing 
beyond  the  group  of  disciples  to  whom  we  already  minis- 
ter, and  meet  them,  interest  them,  and  lead  them  to  the 
point  where  they  shall  see  the  religion  of  Jesus  as  it 
is,  we  can  render  a  splendid  service.  If  we  can  restate 
in  the  language  of  present  life,  clearly,  fearlessly, 
rationally,  these  great  truths  we  live  by,  we  may  gather 

(15) 


16  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

to  ourselves  a  great  host  of  those  who  wait  for  a  real 
and  divine  Gospel.  It  is  that  our  church  here  may  do 
its  small  part  in  that  great  work  which  confronts  our 
evangelical  faith  that  I  have  undertaken  to  utter  some 
plain  views  of  certain  essential  truths  of  the  Christian 
life. 

It  is  natural  to  speak  first  of  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Christian  life  springs  from  personal  trust  in 
and  personal  loyalty  to  Christ.  If  it  be  said  that  our 
belief  in  God  is  more  fundamental  and  would  conse- 
quently'be  a  more  appropriate  starting  place,  I  reply 
that  the  God  whom  we  worship,  serve  and  trust,  is  the 
God  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  "God  in  Christ" 
with  whom  we  have  to  do.  For  this  reason,  therefore, 
and  because  all  theists  agree  in  their  belief  in  the  Al- 
mighty and  Moral  Being  whom  we  call  God,  I  begin 
with  that  which  is  at  once  fundamental  and  distinctive 
in  evangelical  Christianity. 

The  question  as  to  the  divinity  of  Christ  is  no  mere 
question  of  historical  criticism  to  determine  the  rank 
of  one  who  died  long  ago.  It  is  not  a  speculative  ques- 
tion of  dogmatic  theology  to  be  determined  and  then 
laid  carefully  on  a  high  shelf.  It  is  a  question  of  present 
and  significant  fact.  The  frank  inquiry  of  Canon  Lid- 
don  must  confront  us  all:  "Where  is  Jesus  Christ  now? 
And  what  is  He?"  We  know  well  what  He  was  when 
He  walked  in  Galilee  and  helped  the  sick,  the  ignorant 
and  the  sinful,  but  what  can  He  do  now?  "Does  He 
reign  only  by  virtue  of  a  mighty  tradition  of  human 
thought  and  feeling  in  His  favor,  which  creates  and  sup- 
ports his  imaginary  throne?  Is  He  at  this  moment  a 
really  living  being?  And  if  living  is  He  a  human  ghost 


THE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  17 

flitting  we  know  not  where  in  the  unseen  world,  and 
Himself  awaiting  an  award  at  the  hands  of  the  Ever- 
lasting? Is  He  present  personally  as  a  living  power 
in  this  our  world?  Has  He  any  certain  relations  to  you? 
Does  He  think  of  you,  care  for  you,  act  upon  you?  Can 
you  approach  Him  now,  cling  to  Him,  receive  from  Him 
mighty  aid,  not  as  an  act  of  imagination,  but  as  a  sub- 
stantial fact?"1  Is  there  available  for  us  today  that 
same  powerful,  loving  help  with  which  men  and  women 
in  Galilee  became  so  familiar  nineteen  hundred  years 
ago?  Surely  no  inquiry  could  be  more  practical  or 
fruitful  than  this. 

It  may  be  well  to  remember  too  that  this  question 
is  not  propounded  to  us  by  the  schoolmen  or  by  the 
abstract  theologians.  The  same  Lord  who  in  ethics  told 
us  to  do  unto  others  as  we  would  that  others  should 
do  unto  us,  laid  it  upon  his  followers  to  define  their 
estimate  of  Him.  "Whom  do  men  say  that  I  the  Son 
of  Man  am,  and  whom  do  ye  say  that  I  am?"  He  gra- 
ciously blessed  them  when  they  returned  an  answer  He 
could  approve.  Jesus  has  joined  doctrinal  and  practical 
Christianity  together  and  men  can  never  successfully 
put  them  asunder.  I  know  the  impatience  that  many 
people  feel  at  the  mention  of  the  word  "doctrine,"  but  it 
is  usually  with  some  caricature  of  doctrine  rather  than 
with  the  real  thing.  When  a  certain  church  taught  that 
if  a  man  is  baptized,  belongs  to  the  church,  goes  to 
communion  at  least  once  a  year  and  dies,  he  will  be 
eternally  blessed,  but  that  when  another  man,  so  far 
as  we  can  see  of  similar  spirit  and  life,  dies,  he  will  be 
eternally  tormented  because  he  lacked  these  ecclesias- 
tical relations  and  experiences,  we  can  readily  under- 

i  Liddon.  "Bampton  Lectures,"  p.  36. 
The  Main  Points.— 2 


18  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

stand  the  popular  impatience  with  doctrines.  If  the 
acceptance  or  non-acceptance  of  certain  opinions  touch- 
ing matters  still  open  to  discussion  are  held  to  be  saving 
or  damning  in  their  results,  such  doctrinal  claims  will 
be  shunned.  Doctrines  to  command  the  respect  and  al- 
legiance of  thoughtful  people  must  be  based  on  moral 
realities.  A  good  man  is  a  good  man  however  it  came 
about.  Eighteousness  is  righteousness  whatever  be  the 
part,  great,  or  small  or  none,  that  ecclesiastical  obser- 
vances may  have  had  in  producing  it.  Character  is 
character  whether  it  stand  with  full  confidence  in  all  the 
catholic  creeds,  or  with  the  uncertainty  of  reverent  in- 
quiry. All  this  is  manifestly  true,  just  as  a  loaf  of 
bread  is  a  loaf  of  bread  and  feeds  hunger,  whether  the 
maker  and  the  eater  speak  English  and  understand 
chemistry  or  speak  some  pagan  dialect  and  are  innocent 
of  all  modern  science.  If  men  therefore  are  reverent, 
clean,  kind,  just,  and  useful,  we  are  not  to  build  doc- 
trines of  baptism  or  of  justifications  by  opinion,  in  a 
way  to  ignore  these  moral  facts.  But  because  doctrine 
and  life  have  certain  discoverable  affinities,  and  because 
other  things  being  equal,  sound  doctrine  is  a  mighty  aid 
to  sound  living,  Jesus  taught  theology  as  well  as  ethics. 
And  high  up  among  his  sayings  we  find  strong  answers 
given  to  enable  men  to  decide  upon  the  rank  and  claims 
of  the  Son  of  Man. 

The  Congregational  churches  in  common  with  all 
evangelical  Christians  hold  that  Jesus  was  divine.  We 
believe  that  He  was  both  truly  human  and  truly  divine, 
the  union  of  two  natures  in  one  personal  life.  Our  rea- 
sons for  holding  this  view  are  many,  too  many  for  any- 
thing like  an  adequate  statement  within  the  limits  of 


THE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  19 

this  chapter.  The  fact  that  He  wrought  miracles  is 
significant  but  not  conclusive,  for  the  Scriptures  tell  us 
that  miracles  were  also  wrought  by  human  beings.  The 
fact  of  His  resurrection  from  the  dead  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered, but  the  Scriptures  also  tell  us  that  ordinary 
human  beings  were  sometimes  called  back  from  death 
into  life  by  the  power  of  God.  The  mental  supremacy 
of  Him  who  "spake  as  never  man  spake"  has  been 
urged.  No  one  has  ever  addressed  the  moral  needs  of 
men  so  unerringly,  so  effectively,  as  He.  But  mere  pre- 
eminence as  a  moral  teacher  would  not  be  sufficient 
ground  for  affirming  His  divinity.  Shakespeare  was 
pre-eminent,  and  the  level  of  his  plays  has  never  been 
approached  by  any  other  writer  of  English,  yet  Shake- 
speare was  only  a  man. 

The  testimony  of  the  contemporaries  of  Jeeus  has 
weight.  Thomas  fell  down  before  Him  worshiping 
Him,  "My  Lord  and  my  God."  The  other  apostles  used 
similar  language  indicating  their  faith  in  the  absolute 
deity  of  Him  who  had  become  their  Savior.  But  we 
are  told  that  these  men  were  carried  away  by  their  en- 
thusiasm and  applied  titles  to  Christ  which  they  had 
no  right  to  apply;  that  they  used  the  word  "God"  in 
a  careless,  popular  sense  rather  than  with  exact  scien- 
tific or  theological  strictness.  It  is  indeed  true  that 
Jesus  once  referred  to  this  popular  but  unexact  use  of 
the  word  "God."  He  said  to  the  Pharisees,  "Is  it  not 
written  in  your  law,  I  said,  'Ye  are  gods?'  If  He  called 
them  gods  to  whom  the  word  of  God  came,  say  ye  of 
Him  whom  the  Father  hath  sanctified  and  sent  into  the 
world,  'Thou  blasphemest  because  I  said  I  am  the  Son 
of  God?' ''  So  none  of  these  considerations  seem  to  be 
entirely  convincing  to  many  minds. 


20  THE    MAIN    POINTS. 

I  come  therefore  at  once  to  what  lawyers  would  term 
"the  best  evidence" — the  testimony  of  Jesus  concerning 
Himself.  He  knew.  He  gives  us  every  indication  of 
heing  sincere  and  honest.  He  betrays  no  evidence  of  a 
desire  to  boast  or  to  use  excited  or  extravagant  language. 
His  Hebrew  nature  would  have  shrunk  from  the  blas- 
phemy involved  in  applying  to  Himself  divine  titles,  in 
accepting  divine  worship,  and  in  assuming  divine  pre- 
rogatives, if  He  had  been  but  one  of  us  standing  here 
in  the  presence  of  the  Omnipotent  One  who  shall  render 
judgment  for  the  utterance  of  every  idle  word.  Now 
what  account  had  He  to  give  of  himself? 

He  claimed  to  be  sinless.  When  ordinary  men  assume 
to  teach  their  fellow  men,  they  instinctively  accompany 
their  strongest  moral  appeals  with  some  reference  to 
their  own  sense  of  unworthiness.  You  speedily  turn 
away  from  any  pulpit  in  which  you  do  not  hear  ever  and 
anon  the  tones  of  personal  confession.  You  feel  that  if 
a  man  is  not  clear  and  honest  enough  to  see  the  need 
of  moral  betterment  in  himself  as  he  preaches  of  sub- 
lime duties,  he  is  not  fit  to  be  your  moral  leader.  This 
explains  a  certain  habit  of  moral  teachers  all  through  the 
ages.  Paul  near  the  close  of  his  devoted  life  still  cries, 
"This  is  a  faithful  saying  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation, 
that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners, 
of  whom  I  am  chief."  The  saintly  John  writes,  "If  we 
say  we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves  and  the  truth 
is  not  in  us."  James  says,  "Confess  your  faults  one  to 
another  and  pray  for  one  another  that  ye  may  be 
healed."  And  Peter's  humble  word  of  confession  is, 
"Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  oh  Lord." 
These  moral  leaders  of  the  world  confess  their  sense 


THE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  21 

of  guilt  and  go  forward  for  prayers.  But  with  Jesus 
there  is  never  any  acknowledgment  of  fault.  There  is 
no  recorded  prayer  for  personal  forgiveness.  He  taught 
His  human  followers  to  pray  "Forgive  us  our  trespasses/' 
but  for  Himself  He  never  looked  heavenward  to  say 
"Forgive  Me  My  trespass/'  because  He  admits  none. 
On  the  contrary  He  says  boldly,  "The  Father  hath  not 
left  Me  alone,  for  I  do  always  those  things  that  please 
Him."  He  challenged  his  enemies,  "Which  one  of  you 
convicteth  Me  of  sin?"  How  wickedly  false  would  all 
this  sound  on  the  lips  of  a  mere  man  needing  to  con- 
fess his  faults  with  Peter,  James  and  John,  and  with 
us  all.  The  claim  of  moral  perfection  either  affirms 
something  more  than  mere  humanity  or  it  blots  and 
disfigures  the  sincerity  of  a  perfect  Man. 

The  assertion  of  his  own  central  importance,  too, 
throws  light  upon  his  self-estimate.  Bighiminded  hu- 
man leaders  and  teachers  point  away  from  themselves 
to  Christ  or  to  G-od.  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to 
"shew  us  the  Father,"  but  He  also  invited  attention 
and  allegiance  to  Himself  in  a  way  that  would  have 
been  absurd  and  sinful  had  He  been  but  a  man  of  un- 
usual intelligence  and  extraordinary  purity  of  life. 
Listen!  "If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  Me  and 
drink."  "Come  unto  Me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  When  people  turned 
away,  He  shook  His  head  sadly,  saying,  "Ye  will  not 
come  to  Me,  that  ye  may  have  life."  He  looked  out  into 
the  future,  dim  and  vague,  to  the  wisest  and  best  of  men 
and  announced  confidently,  "In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions;  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you."  He 
announced  Himself  as  the  Universal  Judge  of  Mankind 


22  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

and  said  the  Son  of  Man  would  come  and  sit  upon 
the  throne  of  His  glory  and  gather  all  nations  before 
Him!  How  impossible  to  adjust  these  claims  wifh.  any 
humanitarian  theory  of  His  person!  How  we  shrink 
from  placing  them  on  lips  that  are  not  divine. 

Remember  his  confident  use  of  the  "Capital  I,"  of 
which  men  in  proportion  to  their  goodness  and  wisdom 
grow  chary.  "I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life; 
no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me."  "I  am  the 
bread  of  life;  he  that  eateth  this  bread  shall  live  for- 
ever." "I  am  the  light  of  the  world;  he  that  followeth 
Me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness."  "I  am  the  true  vine — 
the  life-tree  of  regenerate  humanity — apart  from  Me 
ye  can  do  nothing."  "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the 
life;  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  Me  shall  never 
die."  "I  am  the  door;  by  me  if  any  man  enter  in  he 
shall  be  saved."  What  extravagant  and  awful  egotism  it 
would  be  for  any  mere  man  to  thus  exalt  himself.  Try 
to  put  such  words  on  the  lips  of  any  great  moral  leader, 
Paul,  Luther,  Francis  of  Assisi,  Wesley,  Phillips  Brooks 
— they  will  not  stay.  The  mute  lips  refuse  them  be- 
cause they  know  their  own  humanity.  No  sane  man 
would  ever  say,  "Apart  from  Me  ye  can  do  nothing." 
No  honest  man  could  say,  "No  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  Me."  The  dilemma,  either  He  was  divine 
or  according  to  these  reported  utterances,  He  was  not  a 
sane,  sincere,  good  man,  is  old  and  has  been  criticised, 
but  its  force  remains. 

Jesus  also  associated  Himself  as  no  mere  man  could, 
with  God  the  Father.  He  told  men  in  the  same  breath 
to  trust  God  and  trust  Himself, — "ye  believe  in  God, 
believe  also  in  Me."  He  commanded  them  to  pray  in 


TEE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  23 

His  name — "If  ye  shall  ask  anything  in  My  name,  I 
will  do  it."  He  ranked  the  honors  paid  to  Him  on  a 
level  with  honor  paid  to.  God — "All  men  should  honor 
the  Son  even  as  they  honor  the  Father."  He  declared 
Himself  to  be  the  full,  unimpaired  revelation  of  the  In- 
visible God  —  "He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the 
Father."  He  associated  Himself  with  God  in  the  work 
of  salvation — "If  a  man  love  Me,  he  will  keep  My  words, 
and  My  Father  will  love  him  and  "We  will  come  and  make 
Our  abode  with  him."  Who  is  this  that  thus  couples  his 
name  with  that  of  God  and  says,  "We!"  His  final  com- 
mission was,  "All  power  is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven  and 
on  earth;  go  ye  therefore  into  all  the  world  and  baptize 
men  into  the  name  of  God  and  into  My  name  and  into 
the  name  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  We  have  heard  extrava- 
gant boasts  made  by  men  as  to  the  extent  of  earthly 
power  assumed;  we  have  heard  the  foolish  utterance  re- 
garding the  latest  of  the  Hohenzollerns  when  German 
soldiers  were  sent  out  with  the  high-sounding  charge 
that  they  were  to  preach  "the  gospel  of  His  Majesty's 
sacred  person"  in  lands  beyond  the  seas.  But  we  have 
never  heard  a  man  claiming  all  power  in  heaven  and  on 
earth  and  sending  his  followers  to  baptize  believers  with 
a  formula  where  the  divine  name  and  his  own  name  stood 
together  and  equal.  Therefore  the  sum  of  the  testi- 
mony that  Jesus  gave  concerning  Himself,  coupled  with 
the  historical  fact  of  His  resurrection  from  the  dead, 
seem  sufficient  to  establish  us  in  the  faith  that  He  was 
the  Son  of  God. 

I  can  understand  the  position  of  men  who  frankly 
reject  the  Bible  record,  admitting  that  the  Scriptures 
teach  that  Jesus  was  divine,  but  refusing  to  take  it  upon 


24  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

that  authority.  I  am  puzzled,  however,  to  see  how 
men  accepting  the  authority  of  Scripture  hold  that 
Jesus  was  a  mere  man.  By.  "authority,"  as  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  say  later,  I  do  not  mean  that  every 
word  is  infallibly  true;  I  mean  authoritative  in  the 
sense  that  on  capital  questions  we  are  left  with  the  right 
and  not  with  the  wrong  conclusions.  The  question  as  to 
what  Jesus  was  is  a  capital  question.  Is  it  right  to 
worship  Jesus  Christ  as  He  is  worshiped  in  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  Christian  churches?  Is  it  right 
to  pray  in  His  name?  Can  He  bestow  upon  men  the 
gift  of  eternal  life?  Is  it  right  to  look  to  Him  in  the 
hour  of  death  for  that  absolute  help  which  can  come 
•only  from  a  divine  source  ?  The  Scriptures  surely  teach 
us  that  it  is,  and  it  is  therefore  difficult  to  see  how  any 
one  can  hold  to  the  authority  of  Scripture  at  all  and 
yet  fail  to  recognize  that  Jesus  is  divine  in  the  same 
sense  that  the  Father  is. 

The  churches  that  take  any  other  position  are  not 
making  progress.  The  statistics  for  1898  show  that  all 
the  evangelical  denominations  in  the  United  States, 
save  that  one  foreign  sect  called  Mennonites,  gained  in 
the  number  of  their  churches.  One  denomination  alone 
made  a  gain  of  two  thousand  churches.  In  189?  the 
Unitarians  reported  454  as  their  total  number  of 
churches  in  the  United  States;  in  1898,  only  453.  The 
Universalists  report  a  clear  loss  of  62  churches  for  the 
year.  The  Unitarian  denomination  has  many  people 
of  intelligence,  culture  and  social  position.  They  are 
characterized  by  generous  activity  in  charitable  work. 
Their  churches  offer  a  wide  hospitality  in  both  belief 
and  conduct — there  is  no  dogmatic  barrier  or  Puritan 


THE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  25 

strictness  to  keep  people  out.  And  yet,  somehow,  they 
do  not  grow.  There  is  certainly  nothing  discourteous 
or  unfraternal  in  quoting  some  of  their  own  words, 
taken  from  a  recent  number  of  the  "Pacific  Unitarian": 

"Two  curious  spectacles  the  world  sees  today;  an 
orthodoxy  holding  fast  to  its  discredited  dogmas  and 
profoundly  in  earnest,  and  a  liberalism  intellectually 
secure  but  without  depth  of  moral  convictions  and  half 
indifferent  to  the  claims  of  personal  religion.  What  the 
outcome  is  to  be  is  already  indicated.  The  world  ap- 
proves our  position  and  forsakes  our  altars.  The  intel- 
ligence of  the  age  goes  the  way  of  liberal  thought,  and 
the  devotion  of  the  age  goes  the  way  of  orthodox  life." 

"One  man  is  born  to  be  a  consistent  Presbyterian.  His 
inheritance  predisposes  him  in  that  direction.  His  make- 
up is  on  that  pattern.  His  surroundings  confirm  and 
strengthen  his  tendency.  He  hears  nothing  else,  or  he 
refuses  to  hear  anything  else.  He  feels  safe  in  it.  He 
is  happy  in  it — as  happy  as  can  be  expected  under 
the  circumstances.  He  belongs  there.  He  would  be 
out  of  place  anywhere  else.  He  is  a  zealous  and  earnest 
man.  He  supports  his  church  to  his  full  ability.  He 
sends  as  large  a  fraction  of  a  missionary  to  convert 
the  heathen  as  he  justly  ought  to  do.  He  leads  a  pious 
life,  and  tries  to  be  just  to  his  fellow-man." 

"Compare  this  man  with  a  lukewarm  Unitarian  who 
is  intellectually  undeniably  his  superior,  who  has  had 
every  advantage  of  culture,  who  has  heard  all  his  life 
the  noblest  appeals  to  lofty  idealism,  who  knows  his 
duty  and  realizes  his  responsibility,  and  yet  is  indifferent 
or  unfaithful.  He  is  respectable,  discouragingly  respect- 
able, but  he  is  selfish  and  utterly  lacking  in  enthusiasm. 


26  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

He  is  devoted  to  no  cause.  He  makes  no  sacrifices.  He 
takes  a  pew  in  his  church  if  he  happens  to  like  the  min- 
ister, perhaps  giving  it  up  for  six  months  when  he  goes 
to  the  country.  He  is  quite  satisfied  with  himself,  and 
for  the  rest  of  the  world  he  seems  not  to  care.  He  sneers 
at  such  fanatics  as  Salvationists,  heing  more  impressed 
with  their  bad  taste  than  their  unselfish  efforts  to  raise 
the  fallen.  If  you  question  him,  you  will  find  that  he 
holds  very  enlightened  views.  He  is  up  to  date  in  the 
apprehension  of  Truth,  but  he  has  absolutely  no  con- 
ception of  religion.  It  is  no  part  of  his  life.  It  fur- 
nishes no  motive  power." 

But  what  is  the  real  reason  for  this  self-confessed 
impotence  of  Unitarian  belief  as  compared  with  vital 
evangelical  faith?  Why  does  this  man's  "up  to  date 
apprehension  of  truth"  seem  to  "furnish  no  motive 
power"?  Why  does  "the  world  forsake  their  altars"? 
Why  does  "the  devotion  of  the  world  go  the  way  of 
the  orthodox"?  There  must  be  some  fundamental  rea- 
son for  all  this.  The  verdict  of  history  and  the  wide 
consensus  of  Christian  men  are  facts  of  great  significance 
for,  as  Abraham  Lincoln  used  to  say,  "You  can  fool 
a  part  of  the  people  all  the  time,  and  you  can  fool 
all  the  people  part  of  the  time,  but  you  can't  fool  all 
the  people  all  the  time."  These  sects  that  deny  the 
divinity  of  Christ  have  been  in  the  world  since  the 
second  century,  and  this  verdict  of  history,  substan- 
tially one  throughout,  means  much.  Men  of  the  Uni- 
tarian Church  see  in  Christ  a  matchless  teacher  of 
morals  and  religion,  an  example  of  the  highest  moral 
beauty,  but  they  do  not  find  in  Him  the  Life-Giver. 
They  do  not  come  to  Him  as  one  able  to  cleanse  the 


THE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  27 

heart  and  renew  the  total  life.  The  form,  the  theory 
and  the  pattern  of  godliness  are  not  the  sorest  need  of 
our  modern  world;  most. men  know  what  is  right  and 
good;  it  is  "the  power  of  godliness,"  that  the  human 
heart  craves.  It  is  that  divine  something  which  renews 
the  springs  of  feeling  and  action;  that  invigorates  the 
enfeebled  will  and  makes  it  strong  to  do  the  will  of 
God  that  is  most  in  demand. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  not  celebrated  as  a  theo- 
logian, but  his  wide  experience  made  him  a  judge  of 
men,  and  he  could  estimate  forces  that  would  work 
lasting  results.  Near  the  close  of  his  life  at  St.  Helena 
he  was  reviewing  the  events  of  his  own  career  and 
commenting  upon  the  great  men  of  history.  "Can  you 
tell  me  who  Jesus  Christ  was?"  he  said  one  day.  No 
answer  was  given  and  he  continued:  "Well,  then,  I  will 
tell  you.  Alexander,  Caesar,  Charlemagne  and  I  myself 
have  founded  great  empires,  but  upon  what  did  these 
creations  of  our  genius  depend?  Upon  force.  Jesus 
alone  founded  his  empire  upon  love,  and  to  this  very  day 
millions  would  die  for  him.  I  think  I  understand  some- 
thing of  human  nature,  and  I  tell  you  that  all  these 
were  men  and  I  am  a  man;  none  else  is  like  Him; 
Jesus  Christ  is  more  than  man.  I  have  inspired  multi- 
tudes with  such  an  enthusiastic  devotion  that  they  would 
have  died  for  me,  but  to  do  this  it  was  necessary  that 
I  should  be  visibly  present  with  the  electric  influence  of 
my  looks,  of  my  words,  of  my  voice.  Christ  alone  has 
succeeded  in  so  raising  the  mind  of  man  toward  the 
Unseen  that  it  becomes  insensible  to  the  barriers  of  time 
and  space.  This  it  is  that  proves  to  me  convincingly  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  Christ."  __ 


28  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

To  hold  that  this  one  personal  life  could  be  both 
human  and  divine  raises  speculative  difficulties.  But 
the  world  is  full  of  mysteries,  moral  and  otherwise.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  opens  up  questions  for  which 
I  have  searched  the  books  in  vain  to  find  a  satisfactory 
answer.  All  the  little  easy  cut  and  dried  efforts  at  com- 
plete explanation  fail,  as  they  must,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case.  Our  minds  are  not  built  on  a  scale  to  thor- 
oughly grasp  the  "Great  mystery  of  godliness,"  when 
"God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit, 
seen  of  angels,  preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed  on 
in  the  world,  received  up  into  glory."  The  mode  of 
God's  unmanifested  existence  even  is  too  high  for  us; 
we  cannot  attain  unto  it  in  our  thought.  But  we  are 
already  bearing  the  burden  of  many  unexplained  mys- 
teries. How  states  of  mind  register  themselves  on  the 
body  in  health  or  in  disease;  how  thought  transference 
at  long  distances  takes  place  beyond  the  possibility  of 
denial;  how  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism,  suggestion 
and  all  the  strange  facts  recorded  by  Societies  for  Psy- 
chical Eesearch  are  produced — we  can  give  no  adequate 
account.  Therefore  inasmuch  as  the  moral  character  of 
Christ  seems  to  be  involved  in  the  acceptance  or  rejec- 
tion of  his  divinity,  "it  is  easier,"  as  Liddon  says,  "f§r  a 
good  man  to  believe  that  in  a  world  where  we  are  encom- 
passed by  mysteries,  where  man's  own  being  itself  is  a 
consummate  mystery,  the  Moral  Author  of  the  wonders 
around  him  should  for  great  moral  purposes  have  taken 
to  Himself  a  created  form,  than  that  the  one  human  life 
which  realizes  the  idea  of  humanity,  the  one  Man  who 
is  at  once  perfect  strength  and  perfect  tenderness,  the 
one  Pattern  of  our  race  in  whom  its  virtues  are  com- 


THE  DIVINITY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  29 

bined  and  its  vices  eliminated,  should  have  been  guilty 
when  speaking  of  Himself  of  an  arrogance,  of  a  self- 
seeking,  and  of  an  insincerity,  which  if  admitted  must 
justly  degrade  him  far  below  the  moral  level  of  millions 
among  his  unhonored  worshipers." 

But  I  desire  to  ask  in  speaking  of  these  doctrines, 
what  bearing  does  all  this  have  on  the  needs  of  common 
life?  All  beliefs  are  as  means  to  an  end  and  the  end  is 
right  conduct.  "The  natural  terminus  of  all  experiences, 
bodily  and  mental,  is  action."  Your  time  and  mine 
would  be  in  large  measure  wasted  did  we  come  here  for 
ten  Sunday  evenings,  study  great  questions,  decide  that 
our  positions  were  sound  and  right,  that  it  gives  us  great 
satisfaction  to  be  orthodox  while  others  are  not,  and 
then  go  away  without  any  additional  help  for  nobler 
living.  Professor  James'  contention  that  there  is  no 
difference  which  does  not  make  a  difference  is  valid. 
"There  can  be  no  difference  in  abstract  truth  which 
does  not  express  itself  in  a  difference  of  concrete  fact 
and  of  conduct  consequent  upon  the  fact."  Unless  the 
claim  that  Jesus  is  divine  makes  some  difference  upon 
conduct,  it  is  purely  a  speculative  claim  and  it  is  scarcely 
worth  our  while  to  make  it. 

For  me  the  practical  helpfulness  of  this  truth  of 
Christ's  divinity  lies  just  here.  The  central  fact  in  the 
Christian  religion  is  Christ.  To  be  a  Christian  is  to 
wear  His  name,  to  trust  absolutely  in  Him,  to  follow 
Him,  to  do  the  will  of  God  as  He  reveals  it  and  by  the 
aid  He  lends.  In  dealing  with  Him  then  as  the  heart 
and  center  of  our  religion,  are  we  dealing  with  one  on 
our  own  level,  purer,  wiser,  finer,  but  a  fellow  mortal, 
or  are  we  coming  into  personal  relations  with  the  total 


30  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

helpfulness  of  the  Omnipotent  God,  to  which  Jesus  re- 
ferred when  He  said,  "All  power  is  given  unto  Me  in 
heaven  and  on  earth/'  "To  deny  divinity  to  Christ  is 
to  relegate  all  divinity  whatsoever  to  the  far-off,  shad- 
owy realm  of  metaphysical  inquiry."  On  the  other 
hand,  to  recognize  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  whom  we  know 
so  well  through  authentic  history,  the  Son  of  God,  the 
Savior  of  Mankind,  is  to  receive  a  pledge  of  the  absolute 
and  unutterable  help  of  God  in  bearing  all  burdens,  in 
meeting  all  temptations,  in  solving  all  human  problems. 
To  "know  Christ"  is  to  come  into  living  relations  with 
that  Inexhaustible  Help.  He  mediates  to  us  nothing 
less  than  "the  power  of  God  unto  salvation/'  And  the 
moral  vigor,  the  confident  assurance,  the  unquenchable 
hope  begotten  of  this  firm  faith  is  well  voiced  in  those 
words  of  the  Apostle,  "He  that  spared  not  His  own  Son 
but  freely  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He 
not  also  with  Him  freely  give  us  all  things/' 


II. 

THE  ATONEMENT. 

The  President  of  an  American  University  once  gave 
an  account  of  a  certain  Bible  Class  which  was  com- 
posed of  a  large  number  of  intelligent,  serious  and  culti- 
vated people.  They  studied  passage  after  passage  in  the 
Scriptures  until  they  came  to  the  one  where  these  words 
stand,  "This  is  a  faithful  saying  and  worthy  of  all  ac- 
ceptation that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save 
sinners."  It  seemed  such  a  fundamental  statement 
that  earnest  discussion  arose.  How  did  He  do  it?  What 
was  Has  method  in  saving  them?  In  order  to  give  the 
careful  consideration  which  such  a  vital  theme  de- 
manded, four  persons  were  appointed  from  the  class  to 
present  papers  on  four  successive  Sundays,  interpreting 
that  verse.  The  four  appointed  comprised  a  Judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  an  ex-Governor  of  the  Common- 
wealth, a  Professor  of  Ethics  from  the  University,  and 
an  unusually  gifted  woman. 

The  paper  presented  by  the  Judge  was  to  this  effect: 
The  law  of  God  reads,  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death."  Men 
have  broken  the  law  and  consequently  stand  condemned 
to  eternal  death  without  remedy.  The  justice  of  G-od 
is  such  that  it  can  suffer  no  violation  of  the  law  without 
meting  out  the  appropriate  penalty.  The  enormity  of 
sin  is  such  that  God  would  require  an  infinite  satisfac- 

(31) 


32  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

tion  before  He  could  release  the  sinner.  But  before 
sentence  is  actually  executed,  Christ  the  Son  of  God 
comes  in  and  as  a  substitute  voluntarily  endures  upon 
the  cross  the  penalty  due  to  men  for  their  sins  and  thus 
purchases  their  pardon.  Therefore,  when  guilty  men 
accept  this  arrangement  and  take  advantage  of  what  He 
has  done  for  them,  they  are  forgiven.  This  interpre- 
tation proceeds  upon  the  analogies  of  the  civil  law  and 
you  recognize  it  as  the  satisfaction  theory  of  the  atone- 
ment. 

The  ex-Governor  began  by  a  criticism  upon  the  pre- 
ceding paper.  Under  such  a  scheme,  God's  forgive- 
ness would  not  be  extended  to  men  as  an  act  of  grace, 
but  purely  as  an  act  of  justice.  The  Scriptures  no- 
where teach  that  salvation  is  purchased  or  in  any  way 
obtained  from  God  by  Christ,  but  that  it  is  given  in  and 
with  Christ,  by  God  himself.  It  comes  to  us  by  the 
grace  of  God  and  not  as  a  result  of  purchase.  And  fur- 
thermore, good  men  would  not  desire  to  take  advantage 
of  such  an  irregular  proceeding,  nor  would  there  come 
to  them  moral  edification  from  standing  as  consenting 
witnesses  to  such  a  commercial  arrangement.  He  of- 
fered instead  the  following  interpretation:  God  is 
ever  as  ready  to  forgive  sinners  as  Christ  was  to 
die  for  them.  There  is  no  more  mercy  in  Christ 
than  in  God  and  no  stricter  justice  in  the  Father  than 
in  the  Son.  But  if  God  were  to  freely  forgive  men 
simply  upon  condition  of  their  penitence,  without  their 
suffering  penalty  or  any  one  suffering  it  for  them,  the 
majesty  of  God's  government  would  be  weakened.  His 
administration  would  be  despised  and  its  restraining, 
moral  force  destroyed.  The  demand  for  an  atonement 


THE  ATONEMENT.  33 

lies  not  in  the  strict  justice  of  God,  but  in  the  exigencies 
of  His  moral  government.  Therefore,  not  as  the  pay- 
ment of  a  price  or  a  penalty  as  an  equivalent  to  purchase 
man's  release,  but  to  show  how  God  hates  sin,  to  up- 
hold the  majesty  of  God's  government  for  administrative 
ends,  and  to  make  forgiveness  consistent  with  the  main- 
tenance of  a  righteous  order,  Christ  suffered  the  penalty 
of  our  wrongdoing  on  the  cross.  This  explanation,  cast 
in  the  forms  of  criminal  law,  is  the  governmental  theory 
of  the  atonement. 

The  Professor  urged  that  both  the  above  views  were 
wrong.  There  could  be  no  transfer  of  guilt  or  of  merit 
from  one  to  another,  he  maintained;  to  make  such  claim 
is  to  pass  over  into  the  realm  of  Eomanist  belief,  where 
the  merits  of  saints  are  imputed  to  sinful  souls  making 
their  tardy  way  through  purgatory.  Guilt  is  personal 
and  merit  is  personal;  to  talk  of  imputing  either  is  eth- 
ical shuffling.  Moreover,  the  same  sin  cannot  be  both 
punished  and  forgiven.  If  Christ  suffered  the  penalty 
due  to  our  transgressions,  then  the  possibility  of  forgive- 
ness is  excluded — we  are  free  as  a  matter  of  justice. 
And  the  claim  that  Christ  suffered  to  show  the  majesty 
of  God's  government  fared  no  better.  Does  it  reveal 
majesty  in  a  government,  he  asked,  to  punish  the  inno- 
cent instead  of  the  guilty,  even  though  the  innocent 
should  consent?  Would  it  impress  horse  thieves,  for  our 
State  to  catch  an  innocent  man  now  and  then  and  im- 
pute to  him  the  guilt  of  horse  stealing  and  then  hang 
him  to  show  the  offenders  how  the  State  hates  their 
crime  and  how  its  majestic  justice  must  be  satisfied  by 
some  victim,  innocent  or  guilty?  Even  though  some  in- 
nocent man  with  a  mistaken  sense  of  what  would  be  for 
The  Main  Points.— 3 


34  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

the  good  of  the  State  should  consent  to  be  hung,  such  a 
spectacle  would  tend  to  bring  a  blot  upon  the  State  in 
the.  eyes  of  both  the  evil  and.  the  good.  The  Professor 
therefore  claimed  that  Christ  simply  came  into  the 
world  to  teach,  to  live,  to  heal  and  to  bless.  He  came 
knowing  that  He  would  be  put  to  death  in  the  midst 
of  His  holy,  beneficent  work.  He  died  to  show  us  that 
the  divine  love  stops  at  nothing.  Calvary  is  a  revela- 
tion in  time,  of  the  length  and  breadth  and  height  and 
depth  of  that  love  of  God  which  passeth  knowledge.  If 
anything  will  melt  the  hearts  of  guilty  men,  surely 
the  sight  of  Christ,  dying  upon  the  cross  for  them  as 
the  climax  and  crown  of  His  saving  life,  must  melt 
them.  This  naturally  is  the  moral  influence  theory  of 
the  atonement. 

These  first  three  theories  cover  the  ground  of  a  cer- 
tain section  of  traditional  theology.  You  have  heard 
them  all  and  pondered  them,  but  somehow  you  were  not 
quite  convinced.  The  satisfaction  idea,  dollar  for  dol- 
lar, so  much  suffering  endured  by  Christ  to  purchase  so 
much  forgiveness  and  mercy  for  us,  does  not  seem  quite 
like  the  atmosphere  of  the  New  Testament.  The  mani- 
fest injustice  of  it  did  not  commend  to  you  such  ethical 
bargaining:  you  shrank  from  pressing  forward  to  avail 
yourself  of  such  a  scheme.  If  Christ  the  Son,  whose 
sense  of  justice  equals  that  of  the  Father,  could  love 
us  while  we  were  yet  sinners  enough  to  die  for  us,  surely 
God  the  Father,  who  is  one  with  the  Son  in  character, 
loves  us  enough  to  forgive  us  without  any  suffering  of 
penalty  by  an  innocent  victim.  And  the  second  the- 
ory seems  to  represent  God  as  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
the  needs  of  His  own  government.  He  desires  to  forgive 


THE  ATONEMENT.  35 

sinful  men  when  they  turn  to  Him  in  penitence,  but 
fears  for  the  majesty  of  His  administration.  But  does 
the  makeshift  named  tend  to  save  that  majesty?  Does 
it  not  load  it  with  a  further  burden  grievous  to  be 
borne?  Moreover,  the  sufferings  of  Christ  are  nowhere 
referred  to  in  the  Scriptures  as  having  been  in  any  sense 
a  "punishment."  And  the  moral  influence  theory  does 
not  meet  and  explain  the  many  texts  of  Scripture  that 
instantly  occur  to  you.  The  authors  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment certainly  saw  in  the  death  of  Christ  something 
more  than  the  sufferings  of  a  martyr  or  the  exhibition 
of  God's  pleading  mercy.  All  the  views  advanced  some- 
how seem  unsatisfactory. 

We  may  be  sure  that  in  Christ's  work  of  reconcilia- 
tion there  were  "no  fictions  or  unrealities,  no  transac- 
tions that  were  not  expressive  of  eternal  verity.  Christ 
was  not  regarded  by  God  as  anything  that  He  was  not 
nor  are  men  in  the  relation  to  Christ  viewed  as  anything 
but  what  they  are.  There  is  no  unreal  changing  of 
places  or  imputation  to  any  one  of  character  that  does 
not  belong  to  him."1  On  the  one  hand  these  tradi- 
tional interpretations  ignore  certain  moral  realities  and 
on  the  other  they  fail  to  explain  certain  passages  of 
Scripture.  The  doctrine  of  atonement  must  be  stated 
so  that  both  conscience  and  reason  will  respond;  men 
will  not  accept  something  because  they  are  told  it  is 
the  "plan  of  salvation"  if  it  is  irrational  or  absurd;  if 
it  ignores  moral  facts,  or  brings  an  apparent  disagree- 
ment between  the  character  of  the  Father  and  that  of 
the  Son;  nor  will  they  rest  in  any  view  of  sheer  rational- 
ism that  fails  to  interpret  the  body  of  Scripture  bearing 
upon  this  fundamental  question. 

i  Clark,  "Outline  of  Christian  Theology,"  p.  333. 


36  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

In  discussing  the  atonement,  it  is  always  well  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  fact  and  the  human  theories  about 
the  fact.  However  we  may  try  to  explain  it,  "the  atone- 
ment is  the  work  of  God's  love  in  its  bearing  upon  man's 
sin."  The  great  fact  is  that  God  so  loved  the  world 
as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son,  and  the  Son  so  loved 
us  as  to  die  for  us.  There  is  no  dispute  about  that. 
But  when  we  come  to  theorize  upon  what  effect  His 
death  had  as  between  Him  and  the  Father  or  as  be- 
tween Him  and  the  moral  laws  of  the  universe,  we  land 
ourselves,  in  difficulty.  A  man  could  live  a  worthy 
Christian  life,  however,  on  the  great  fact  that  God  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  Son,  even  though  he 
had  no  theological  theory  at  all  regarding  the  atone- 
ment. "Life  eludes  definition  and  analysis,  and  grows 
according  to  its  own  laws.  While  scholars  were  beating 
out  the  articles  of  the  Creed  of  Chalcedon,  all  through 
the  world  in  serene  unconsciousness  humble  spirits  were 
following  Jesus  in  the  realization  of  fatherhood  and 
brotherhood.  While  the  reformed  divines  by  every  de- 
vice known  to  logic  were  packing  words  with  sover- 
eignty, reprobation  and  expiation,  millions  who  never 
heard  of  a  logical  process  were  yielding  to  the  mastery 
of  Jesus  and  learning  at  first  hand  that  He  is  the  Way 
and  the  Truth  and  the  Life."1 

We  must  bear  in  mind  too  that  the  Scriptures  uni- 
formly represent  Christ  not  as  reconciling  an  angry  God 
to  us,  but  as  reconciling  us  to  God.  The  Scriptures  show 
"God  willing  and  men  unwilling.  Eeconciliation  is  pro- 
posed between  two  parties,  of  whom  one  has  a  heart  for 
it  and  the  other  has  little  or  none.  Hence,  just  as  we 
should  expect  if  one  party  was  willing  and  the  other 

l  Amory  H.  Bradford,  "The  Growing  Revelation,"  p.  234. 


THE  ATONEMENT.  37 

was  not,  we  find  the  willing  taking  the  initiative.  God 
Himself  has  given  Christ  to  be  a  propitiation  and  a  God 
who  will  Himself  provide  a  propitiation  has  no  need 
of  one  in  the  sense  which  the  word  has  ordinarily 
borne."1  The  Scriptures  bear  uniform  testimony  to 
this  view  of  the  matter.  "God  was  in  Christ  recon- 
ciling the  world  unto  Himself."  "If  when  we  were 
enemies  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  his 
Son,  much  more  being  reconciled  we  shall  be  saved  by 
His  life."  "If  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new  crea- 
ture; old  things  are  passed  away;  behold  all  things  are 
become  new,  and  all  things  are  of  God  who  hath  recon- 
ciled us  to  Himself  by  Jesus  Christ."  "We  also  joy  in 
God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  whom  we  have 
now  received  the  atonement."  This  atonement,  accord- 
ing to  the  Century  Dictionary  the  "at-one-ment,"  is 
that  which  makes  us  at-one  with  God.  The  word  atone- 
ment is  only  used  once  in  the  New  Testament,  and  the 
Greek  word  there  translated  atonement  is  elsewhere 
translated  "reconciliation."  In  the  three  passages 
quoted  above,  the  word  for  "reconcile"  or  "reconcilia- 
tion" is  the  same  word  which  for  some  reason  is  trans- 
lated atonement  in  this  single  passage.  If  we  were  to 
make  the  translation  uniform  throughout,  we  should 
find  that  God  "hath  given  to  us  the  ministry  of  atone- 
ment." We  should  find  Paul  urging  a  certain  Corin- 
thian woman  to  be  "'atoned  to  her  husband" — that  is, 
restored  to  loyalty  and  affection  toward  him.  This 
throws  light  upon  what  Paul  had  in  mind  when  he 
spoke  of  "atonement"  or  "reconciliation."  It  was  the 
restoration  of  a  personal  relation  and  fellowship  which 
had  been  interrupted  by  wrongdoing. 
1  Clark,  "Christian  Theology,"  pp.  324-335. 


38  TEE   MAIN   POINTS. 

Independent  of  any  theory,  the  Scriptures  certainly 
teach  that  whatever  barriers  there  were  between  a  holy 
God  and  sinful  men,  they  are  all  cleared  away  when  we 
turn  from  our  sins  and  become  personal  believers  in 
Jesus  Christ.  But  if  there  were  barriers  on  God's  part 
which  demanded  the  death  of  an  innocent  victim  before 
forgiveness  could  be  extended  to  the  penitent,  Jesus  does 
not  seem  to  know  about  them.  Men  were  invited  by 
Him  to  come  directly  to  the  Father  in  penitent  faith, 
and  ask  for  forgiveness;  and  according  to  His  common 
speech  they  were  forgiven,  not  because  some  penalty 
had  been  paid  or  satisfaction  made,  to  which  their  at- 
tention was  directed  as  the  ground  on  which  to  hope  for 
pardon — they  were  forgiven  because  they  came  in  peni- 
tence and  faith.  The  publican  went  up  to  the  temple 
and  prayed,  "God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  Peni- 
tence, confession,  faith  that  God  would  forgive — and 
he  went  down  to  his  house  "justified,"  according  to  the 
account  of  Christ,  without  any  reference  to  a  present  or 
prospective  ground  of  forgiveness,  to  be  purchased 
only  by  the  blood  of  the  innocent.  It  was  a  fatal  omis- 
sion in  the  parable  unless  penitent  and  believing  men 
are  always  forgiven,  simply  because  their  Father  desires 
to  forgive  them.  The  woman  who  was  a  sinner  was 
forgiven,  and  the  ground  is  stated  by  our  Lord — "be- 
cause she  loved  much" — loved  Him  enough  to  fall  down, 
before  Him  in  penitent  confession  and  faith.  He 
taught  us  to  pray,  "Forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  for- 
give them  that  trespass  against  us";  "For,"  He  said,  "if 
ye  forgive  men  their  trespasses  your  heavenly  Father 
will  also  forgive  you  your  trespasses."  The  genuine- 
ness of  our  penitence  and  the  new  attitude  of  faith 


THE  ATONEMENT.  39 

toward  God  would  be  indicated  by  our  forgiving  spirit 
toward  others;  and  this  penitence  and  faith  were  made 
the  sole  conditions  of  forgiveness.  The  thief  on  the 
cross  prayed,  "Lord,  remember  me  when  thou  comest 
into  thy  kingdom."  He  had  already  said,  "We  are  suf- 
fering justly  for  our  deeds,  but  he  has  done  nothing 
amiss."  Eepentance,  confession,  faith  again — and  Je- 
sus forgave  him,  assuring  him  an  entrance  into  the  king- 
dom. It  was  a  singular  omission  that  He  made  no  ref- 
erence to  the  connection  of  His  sufferings  there  with 
the  possibilities  of  forgiveness,  if  those  sufferings  con- 
stituted in  His  mind  the  sole  ground  of  forgiveness. 

In  a  word,  Jesus  taught  that  the  method  of  divine 
forgiveness  found  its  prototype  in  the  method  of  human 
forgiveness.  "Forgive  as  we  forgive,"  was  His  direc- 
tion as  to  the  confidence  in  which  we  should  pray.  "If 
ye  then  being  evil  know  how  to  forgive  men  their  tres1- 
passes  when  they  turn  to  you  in  open  acknowledgment 
of  fault,  in  penitence,  and  with  confidence  in  you,  how 
much  more  will  your  Heavenly  Father  forgive  you  when 
you  turn  to  Him  in  the  same  way."  This  was  the 
uniform  teaching  of  Jesus  and  His  unfailing  habit  with 
burdened  penitent  souls.  Did  He  omit  the  very  corner 
stone  of  the  Gospel  in  teaching  that  the  willing  mercy  of 
God  is  the  sole  and  sufficient  ground  for  human  for- 
giveness? He  had  not  died,  it  is  true,  but  He  knew 
that  He  was  to  die;  He  had  spoken  repeatedly  of  the  de- 
cease He  was  to  accomplish  at  Jerusalem.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  suppose  that  His  confident  offers  of 
mercy  were  upon  a  ground  that  in  a  few  months  would 
be  rendered  a  false  and  unsafe  one  by  His  death  upon 
the  Cross. 


40  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

After  wandering  through  elaborate  theories  and  in- 
tricate reasonings  about  commercial  exchanges  and  ju- 
dicial experiments,  about  imputation  of  guilt  and  of 
merit  where  they  do  not  rightly  belong,  we  find  it 
refreshing  to  turn  to  the  four  Gospels  and  to  the  origi- 
nal Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  cannot  help  say- 
ing, how  little  He  seemed  to  know  of  all  these  elabora- 
tions and  how  far  from  their  intricacy  were  His  plain 
statements  about  forgiveness  and  mercy.  If  any  man 
should  come  back  from  the  far  country  of  wrongdoing 
and  stand  before  the  Father,  saying,  "I  have  sinned 
against  heaven  and  before  Thee/'  he  was  forgiven  on 
the  spot  without  reference  to  his  knowledge  of  or  con- 
fidence in  a  vague  something  lying  back  that  made  it 
possible  for  a  Father  to  forgive  His  penitent  child. 
The  very  words  "reconciliation,"  atonement/'  "pro- 
pitiation," "justification,"  never  occur  in  the  four  Gos- 
pels at  all.  The  great  Teacher  who  spake  as  never  man 
spake,  lived  His  whole  life,  delivered  His  entire  mes- 
sage, and  finished  the  work  which  the  Father  had  given 
Him  to  do,  without  ever  finding  it  necessary  or  appro- 
priate to  use  one  of  them.  It  cannot  be  that  the  theo- 
ries with  which  these  terms  are  bound  up  are  such  mat- 
ters of  life  and  death,  if  He  never  emploved  the  terms 
at  all. 

The  great  forgiving  love  of  God,  unpurchased  by  any- 
body, unhindered  by  any  governmental  embarrassments, 
leaping  the  barriers  that  human  sin  interposes,  has 
been  ever  seeking  the  lost  that  it  might  bring  them  sal- 
vation. We  have  obscured  it  by  our  clever  theories. 
We  have  dimmed  its  light  by  an  unwarranted  use  of  cer- 
tain expressions  in  the  Epistles.  These  expressions 


THE  ATONEMENT.  41 

were  natural  to  Jewish  men,  trained  in  an  ecclesiastical 
system  where  the  offering  of  bloody  sacrifices  bore  a 
prominent  part.  Jesus,  however,  transcended  the  na- 
tional traits  of  His  people  and  the  special  cult  and 
habit  of  mind  prevailing  in  the  Jewish  Church.  There- 
fore, when  we  turn  to  His  utterances  we  find  no  words 
that  would  interpose  objections  to  the  free,  unpurchased 
forgiving  mercy  of  God,  or  furnish  support  for  theories 
of  substitution  and  governmental  expediency. 

The  claim  has  been  urged  that  all  the  references  to 
the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats  in  the  Old  Testament  are 
to  be  carried  forward  and  made  applicable  to  the  death 
of  Christ.  But  the  choicest  spirits  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment knew  the  mind  of  God  sufficiently  to  see  that  God 
forgave  men  then,  not  on  account  o<f  the  bloody  sacrifice, 
but  on  account  of  their  penitence  and  faith.  Hear  Da- 
vid— "Thou  desirest  not  sacrifice;  Thou  delightest  not 
in  burnt  offering,  else  would  I  give  it.  The  sacrifices  of 
God  are  a  broken  and  a  contrite  heart."  And  Samuel — 
"Hath  the  Lord  as  great  delight  in  burnt  offerings  and 
sacrifices  as  in  obeying  the  voice  of  the  Lord?  To  obey 
is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of 
rams."  And  Isaiah — "To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude 
of  your  sacrifices  unto  me?  saith  the  Lord.  Who  hath 
required  this  at  your  hands?  Let  the  wicked  forsake 
his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let 
him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon 
him,  and  to  our  God,  for  He  will  abundantly  pardon. 
Cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well;  then  come  and  let  us 
reason  together,  saith  the  Lord,  and  though  your  sins 
be  as  scarlet  they  shall  be  white  as  snow."  And  Hosea 
— "I  desire  mercy,  not  sacrifice,  and  knowledge  of  God 


42  THE   MAIN    POINTS. 

more  than  burnt  offerings."  And  Micah — "Wherewith 
shall  I  come  before  the  Lord?  Shall  I  come  with  burnt 
offerings  and  calves?  Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with 
thousands  of  rams  and  ten  thousand  rivers  of  oil?  He 
hath  shewed  thee,  oh  man,  what  is  good,  and  what  doth 
the  Lord  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly  and  to  love 
mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God."  And  Jere- 
miah— "Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts:  I  spake  not 
unto  your  fathers,  nor  commanded  them  in  the  day  that 
I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  concerning 
burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices;  but  this  thing  commanded 
I  them,  saying,  Obey  my  voice  and  I  will  be  your  God 
and  ye  shall  be  my  people/'  And  Ezekiel — "When  the 
wicked  man  turneth  away  from  his  wickedness  that  ho 
hath  committed  and  doeth  that  which  is  lawful  and 
right,  he  shall  save  his  soul  alive;  all  his  transgressions 
that  he  hath  committed  shall  not  be  mentioned  unto 
him." 

I  might  go  on  indefinitely.  These  are  the  leading 
men  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  men  of  vision  and  in- 
sight. Their  combined  message  is  to  the  effect  that 
the  forgiving  mercy  of  God  is  neither  purchased  nor 
purchasable;  it  is  freely  bestowed  upon  all  who  seek  it, 
as  an  act  of  grace.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  in  speak- 
ing in  this  derogatory  way  of  the  idea  of  purchasing 
reconciliation  by  bloody  sacrifices,  they  were  simply 
emphasizing  the  necessity  of  accompanying  these  offer- 
ings by  penitence  and  faith,  and  that  they,  too,  held 
strongly  to  the  priestly  view.  If  they  were  teaching 
the  same  thing  the  priests  taught,  why  the  clear  conten- 
tion between  the  prophets  and  the  priests,  between  the 
men  of  moral  vision  and  the  upholders  of  ritualism? 


THE  ATONEMENT.  43 

The  prophets  saw  then  .that  the  priestly  class,  with  their 
theories  of  judicial  exchange  and  imputation  of  guilt  to 
innocent  victims,  and  the  whole  notion  of  appeasing  a 
wrath  which  no  longer  exists  toward  sinful  men  when 
they  face  about  in  penitence,  was  confusing  and  mis- 
leading the  people,  just  as  priests  in  the  Eoman  Catholic 
Church,  with  their  "perpetual  sacrifice  of  the  Mass," 
and  all  the  magical,  mystical  accompaniments  which  ig- 
nore moral  facts,  are  doing  now.  When  I  see  these 
prophets,  who  stood  at  the  highwater  mark  of  Old  Tes- 
tament inspiration,  pointing  men  not  to  the  wringing  of 
the  neck  of  a  pigeon,  or  the  cutting  of  the  throat  of  a 
lamb,  as  the  ground  of  forgiveness,  but  rather  to  the 
free,  unpurchased  and  unpurchasable  mercy  of  God,  I 
prefer  to  study  the  New  Testament  passages  which  con- 
tain expressions  carried  over  from  a  former  dispensation 
by  Hebrews  still  saturated  with  that  cult,  by  the  aid  of 
this  prophetic  school  of  religious  teachers. 

You  have  heard  certain  interpretations  given  as 
"plans  of  salvation"  and  "schemes  of  redemption"  which 
were  no  better  than  fairy  stories,  and  very  wicked  fairy 
stories,  too,  for  they  misrepresented  "the  Father"  and 
drove  men  into  unbelief.  An  earnest  evangelist  used 
to  go  about  the  country  representing  the  atonement 
after  this  fashion:  A  father  and  son  in  a  certain  family 
had  become  estranged  by  the  son's  evil  conduct.  The 
son  finally  ran  away  from  home  angry,  vowing  he  would 
never  return  until  the  father  softened  toward  him  and 
asked  for  the  return.  The  heartbroken  mother  sought 
with  all  her  love  to  induce  him  to  come  home,  but  he 
would  not.  She  pleaded  with  the  father  to  request  the 
return,  but  his  patience  had  been  sorely  tried  by  the 


44  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

dissolute  habits  of  his  boy,  and  he  would  not  forgive  nor 
invite  him  back.  The  mother  grew  sick  unto  death 
and  a  message  was  sent  in  her  name,  imploring  the  boy 
to  come  home  and  see  her  before  she  died.  He  still  re- 
mained obdurate  until  the  father  sent  a  message  in  his 
own  name,  and  then  the  son  caime.  But  still  the  father 
and  son  were  unreconciled,  and  they  stood  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  mother's  death  bed,  proudly  unwilling  to 
speak  to  each  other.  She  saw  the  gulf  between  them, 
and  at  last  reaching  out,  took  a  hand  of  each,  clasped 
them  together,  and  holding  them  in  her  own  hand 
passed  away.  The  hands  which  she  had  clasped  together 
in  her  dying  love,  the  father  and  son  could  not  now  un- 
clasp in  enmity,  and  so  hand  in  hand  they  knelt  and 
implored  forgiveness,  both  human  and  divine,  and  were 
reconciled.  She  who  had  failed  in  life  to  reconcile 
them,  thus  reconciled  them  in  her  death. 

And  this  terrible  story  of  a  father's  haughty,  unwill- 
ing pride,  withholding  forgiveness  even  where  the  signs 
of  penitence  had  begun  to  appear,  was  supposed  to 
show  how  God,  who  so  loved  the  world  as  to  send  His 
only  Son,  is  induced  to  forgive  wayward  but  return- 
ing children.  What  a  caricature  of  Him,  of  whom 
Jesus  said:  "He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the 
Father!"  Against  all  attempts,  whether  they  are  made 
openly  in  the  name  of  the  devil,  or  covertly  in  the  name 
of  what  would  erroneously  call  itself  evangelical,  to  put 
a  blot  or  blur  on  the  face  of  the  Father,  which  shines 
and  has  always  shone  with  forgiving  welcome  for  the 
man  who  turns  away  from  his  wrongdoing  and  faces 
home — against  all  such  attempts  that  are  in  plain  dis- 
agreement with  the  teachings  of  our  Lord,  I  certainly 
protest. 


THE  ATONEMENT.  46 

If  we  find  ourselves  unable  then  to  accept  siidi  the- 
ories as  to  the  results  of  Christ's  death,  shall  we  say  that 
His  death  was  a  mere  martyrdom,  and  that  it  meant 
nothing  more  than  the  dramatic  end  of  any  good  man's 
life,  who  is  slain  by  'his  enemies?  Shall  we  class  it 
with  the  deaths  of  Socrates,  Joan  of  Arc,  Cranmer,  Lin- 
coln and  Garfield?  Holding  to  the  divinity  of  Christ, 
I  cannot  regard  His  death  as  an  ordinary  event.  The 
Scriptures  do  not  treat  it  so.  He  taught  men;  He  gave 
us  a  perfect  example;  He  served  human  need  by  His 
acts  of  mercy;  His  life  was  and  is  the  mightiest  influ- 
ence in  all  the  world's  history.  But  beyond  all  this, 
the  Scriptures  attach  special  significance  to  His  death. 
"I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me.  This 
He  said,  signifying  what  death  He  should  die."  "Ex- 
cept a  corn  of  wheat  be  cast  into  the  ground  and  die 
it  abideth  alone;  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit."  "I  am  the  good  shepherd  and  I  lay  down  My 
life  for  the  sheep."  "This  is  My  body,  which  is  broken 
for  you;  this  is  My  blood  which  is  shed  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins."  All  these  sayings  of  Christ  Himself  have 
some  potent  meaning.  We  cannot  'accept  His  account 
of  Himself  and  fail  to  believe  that  His  death  has  special 
significance  in  saving  men  from  their  sins. 

I  come,  therefore,  to  the  argument  in  the  fourth  pa- 
per. The  woman  with  her  quicker  spiritual  intuition 
and  finer  abilities  for  penetrating  the  mysteries  of  love, 
gives  us  another  view.  The  death  of  Christ  was  an 
event  in  history,  she  said,  but  it  was  the  revelation  in 
time  of  something  eternal.  The  Scriptures  speak  of 
Christ  as  "the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  This  utterance  of  the  Spirit  lifts  the  atoning 


46  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

work  of  Christ  up  into  timeless  and  cosmic  relations, 
and  expresses  that  eternal  heartache  and  heartbreak 
of  the  Father  over  the  wrongdoing  of  His  childen.  It 
was  there  "from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  because 
He  saw  that  if  men  were  created  free  moral  agents, 
they  would  sometimes  choose  the  wrong.  It  is  no  mere 
passive  feeling — the  heartache  and  heartbreak  of  a  lov- 
ing parent  over  the  sin  of  his  child  cannot  be  passive. 
It  is  that  edement  in  the  divine  character  which  suffers 
and  makes  sacrifice  in  the  word  of  rescuing  the  Father's 
children.  Christ,  therefore,  reveals  and  represents  that 
in  God  which  goes  out  redemptively  at  infinite  cost  to 
Himself,  even  as  the  shepherd  leaves  the  ninety  and 
nine  and  goes  after  the  lost  one  sometimes  at  the  forfeit 
of  his  own  life. 

Jesus  Himself  pictured  this  divine  effort  for  our  re- 
covery as  the  act  of  a  vine  giving  its  very  heart  blood 
to  the  branches  in  a  personal  sacrifice  that  seems  to  rob 
it  of  leaves  and  of  fruit,  that  those  branches  might  have 
life  abundantly  and  bear  their  fruit.  He  pictured  it  as 
the  act  of  one  who  having  life  in  himself,  imparts  him- 
self, and  feeds  other  weaker  lives  upon  his  own  offered 
personality.  This  is  My  body,  My  very  self,  which  is 
broken  and  given  for  you;  this  is  My  blood,  My  own 
life  principle,  which  brings  remission,  the  washing  away 
of  your  sins  and  the  renewal  of  your  nature  in  holiness. 

This  personal  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  Christ  and  our 
personal  appropriation  of  whait  He  offers  in  His  sacri- 
fice are  vividly  portrayed  in  His  strong  words,  "Except 
ye  eat  the  flesh  and  drink  the  blood  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  ye  have  no  life  in  you."  It  is  an  intense  state- 
ment of  the  way  in  which  Jesus  mediates  to  us  the  di- 


THE  ATONEMENT.  47 

vine  life  that  we  may  become  the  sons  and  the  daughters 
of  the  Most  High  God.  As  we  read  in  Deuteronomy, 
"the  blood  is  the  life."  Its  office  in  the  human  body  is 
to  cleanse  and  to  feed  the  organism.  The  moral  life 
of  man  is  diseased  and  feeble.  The  outpoured  life  of 
Christ,  when  received  by  us,  cleanses  us  from  sin  and 
nourishes  our  weakened  natures  into  'moral  health. 
This  is  atonement  indeed.  It  is  as  though  He  opened 
the  veins  of  His  own  rich,  holy  nature  in  willing 
sacrifice  and  thus  infused  into  sinful  but  penitent, 
receptive  humanity,  that  new  and  holy  life  which  ef- 
fects our  reconciliation  with  God.  And  thus  in  the 
simple,  accurate  language  of  Scripture,  we  are  "saved 
by  the  blood  of  Christ."  This  accomplishes  no  mere 
outward  removal  of  that  divine  wrath  which  must  exist 
toward  sin  as  long  as  sin  lasts — this  removes  guilt, 
cleanses  the  stain  and  imparts  the  new  life  of  incipient 
holiness,  which  alone  makes  us  "at-one  with  God."  Any 
adequate  definition  of  atonement  must  include  "the  en- 
tire W'Ork  of  Christ  in  reuniting  man  to  God,"  which  can 
only  be  accomplished  by  the  transformation  of  the  in- 
ner life.  It  is  our  union  with  the  holy  humanity  of 
Jesus,  offered  and  poured  out  for  the  world's  redemp- 
tion, that  restores  us  to  the  favor  and  the  likeness  of 
God. 

Does  not  this  seem  reasonable?  Is  there  any  ignor- 
ing of  moral  realities,  anything  irrational  or  unscrip- 
tural?  The  universe  is  full  of  this  vicarious  principle. 
One  thing  lays  down  its  life  for  another.  A  recent 
writer  has  sought  this  idea  far  and  wide,  even  in  the 
physical  world.  The  granite  mountains  have  been 
"nature's  stores  of  powerful  stimulants."1  The  heat 

i  N.  D.  Hillis,  "The  Investment  of  Influence,"  p.  73. 


48  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

has  swelled  the  flakes  of  granite,  the  frost  split  them, 
the  moss  and  lichens,  with  the  rain,  dissolved  them,  and 
presently  the  hard  stone  has  become  soil.  The  rushing 
torrent  sweeps  these  mineral  foods  down  into  the  valleys. 
The  death  of  the  granite  block  becomes  the  life  of  the 
growing  grain  below.  The  whole  vegetable  world  is 
laying  down  its  life  that  horses  and  cattle  and  men  may 
live  and  be  useful  in  a  way  that  wheat  and  oats  and  corn 
could  not  be  useful.  Ages  ago  the  vegetable  world  in 
its  most  luxuriant  form  laid  down  thick  tropical  jun- 
gles to  make  the  coal  beds.  Today  we  sit  by  the  glow- 
ing grate,  or  read  by  the  coal  gas,  or  ride  upon  the  steam 
car,  because  the  vegetable  world  laid  down  its  life  for 
us  centuries  ago.  The  lower  forms  of  animal  life,  the 
cattle,  the  sheep  and  the  fowls  are  laying  down  their 
lives  that  human  life  may  be  fed  and  made  effective. 
Everything  is  bought  with  a  price.  Men  lay  down  their 
lives,  sometimes  in  a  single  heroic  act  of  martyrdom, 
sometimes  by  patient  years  of  self-denying  service.  The 
physician  robs  himself  of  sleep,  hurries  through  his 
meals,  carries  the  anxiety  of  a  hundred  households  at 
a  time,  and  dies  all  too  soon,  laying  his  life  on  the  altar 
of  the  community's  improved  health.  School  teachers 
lay  down  their  nerves,  their  health,  and  sometimes  the 
gentler  qualities  of  character,  on  the  altar  of  education 
for  restless,  thoughtless  boys  and  girls.  Kailroad  en- 
gineers, going  on  ahead,  watching  the  track  with  eagle 
eye,  enduring  a  nervous  strain  that  cuts  into  life  with 
sharp  strokes,  ready  to  be  the  first  to  meet  the  washout 
or  the  broken  rail,  are  types  of  sacrifice,  denying  them- 
selves for  the  comfort  of  those  who  sleep  securely  in  the 
Pullmans.  Husbands  and  wives  who  could  easily  sup- 


THE  ATONEMENT.  49 

port  themselves  and  attain  a  competency  for  old  age, 
suffer  and  sacrifice  for  the  comfort,  education,  and  well- 
being  of  bheir  children.  "All  this  is  of  the  nature  of 
atonement,  and  there  is  no  corner  of  the  world  where 
the  letters  of  this  word  may  not  be  spelled  out,  like  a 
dim  and  broken  inscription  on  the  fragments  of  human 
life."1  Everywhere  the  vicarious  principle  is  at  work, 
for  "except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and 
die  it  abideth  alone,  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit." 

When  we  come  to  the  summit  of  all  being,  we  should 
not  expect  to  find  the  Creator  ignoring  this  vicarious 
principle  with  which  He  has  filled  the  world.  We  are 
already  prepared  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  atonement 
when  revelation  offers  it.  He,  too,  will  suffer  and  make 
sacrifices  for  His  children.  The  throne  of  God  was  not 
a  cold  marble  throne,  melted  at  last  by  what  it  saw  on 
Calvary — it  was  a  throne  of  self-sacrificing  mercy  from 
the  first.  The  "Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne"  is  a  "Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  It  would  be  unthinkable  that  God's  attributes 
of  justice  and  mercy  were  in  a  state  of  confusion  or  an- 
tagonism until  Christ  came  and  died  on  Calvary — in- 
deed, "law  and  grace  are  co-ordinate  and  harmonious 
expressions  of  one  and  the  same  reality  in  God,  namely 
of  His  opposition  to  sin  and  His  desire  that  His  crea- 
tures may  be  free  from  it."  Thus  the  total  conclusion 
to  which  the  Scriptures  bring  us  is  that  there  has  been 
eternally  among  the  attributes  of  God  a  readiness  to 
suffer  and  make  sacrifices  for  the  moral  recovery  of  sin- 
ful men. 

i  Van  Dyke,  "Gospel  for  a  World  of  Sin,"  p.  135. 
The  Main  Points.— 4 


50  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

The  vindication  of  this  doctrine  of  atonement  is 
found  in  actual  life.  The  schoolmen  may  puzzle  and 
confuse  us  with  their  philosophic  efforts  at  the  ad- 
justment of  the  benefits  of  the  Savior's  sacrifice  of 
Himself,  but  the  active  participants  in  the  work  of 
saving  a  world  that  groans  and  travails,  as  it  waits 
for  moral  recovery,  will  bring  us  a  sure  word  of  in- 
terpretation. "Nothing  short  of  this  experience  of 
earnest  service  and  unflinching  sacrifice  for  the  triumph 
of  God's  will  and  the  good  of  man  can  interpret  to  us 
today  the  meaning  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  Every 
man  who  has  tried  to  do  these  things  in  any  degree 
knows  full  well  that  there  can  be  no  salvation  either 
from  sin  or  from  the  misery  sin  entails  on  guilty  and  in- 
nocent alike,  save  by  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  some 
brave,  generous  servant  of  righteousness  and  benefactor 
of  his  fellows.  The  doctrine  of  atonement  is  self-evi- 
dent to  every  man  who  ever  fought  intrenched  and  pow- 
erful evil,  or  sought  to  rescue  the  wicked  from  their 
wickedness.  To  those  who  have  never  touched  the 
fearful  burden  of  human  sin  and  misery  with  so  much 
as  the  tips  of  their  dainty  and  critical  fingers,  the 
doctrine  of  vicarious  suffering,  like  all  the  deeper  truths 
of  the  spiritual  life,  must  remain  forever  an  unintelli- 
gible and  impenetrable  mystery."1 

I  have  named  those  aspects  of  the  voluntary  sacrifice 
Jesus  made  of  Himself  that  seem  most  scriptural  and 
most  helpful  to  me.  I  would  not  intimate  that  they  ex- 
haust even  in  my  own  thought  all  that  is  suggested  in 
that  "God  so  loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  only  begot- 
ten Son."  The  divine  nature  in  all  its  self-relationships 
must  contain  moral  mysteries  which  are  beyond  our 

1  Wm.  DeWitt  Hyde.  "The  Reorganization  of  the  Faith," 
New  World,  March,  1899. 


THE  ATONEMENT.  51 

ken.  The  various  theories  of  the  atonement  have  heen 
attempts  to  rationalize  and  comprehend  what  still 
eludes  while  it  entices  our  utmost  effort  of  thought  and 
aspiration.  And  when  the  returns  are  all  in  from  all 
the  theories,  it  is  to  the  great,  glad  fact  that  we  all  re- 
sort for  moral  help — God  so  loved  the  world  as  to  give 
His  Son.  "The  old  idea  that  Christ  died  because  God 
was  insulted  and  must  punish  somebody  fades  out.  The 
conception  of  the  death  of  Jesus  as  a  mere  exhibition  of 
governmental  severity  for  the  sake  of  keeping  order  in 
the  universe  becomes  too  narrow.  The  measuring  of 
the  precise  amount  of  Christ's  suffering  as  a  quid  pro  quo 
for  an  equal  amount  of  penalty  incurred  by  human  sin 
no  longer  satifies  the  moral  sense.  The  cross  itself  with 
its  simplicity,  its  generosity  of  sacrifice,  its  evident  re- 
forming and  regenerating  power  upon  the  heart — the 
cross  itself  leads  the  race  upward  and  onward  in  the 
interpretation  of  its  message."1 

When  we  stand  in  the  clear  revelation  made  by  Christ 
of  that  unutterable  love  of  God  which  passeth  know- 
ledge and  stops  at  nothing,  we  do  not  feel  in  a  mood  for 
splitting  hairs  as  to  how  the  benefits  of  that  love  will  be 
adjusted.  We  shrink  from  any  effort  at  laying  it  out 
with  metes  and  bounds.  We  stand  thankfully  and  rev- 
erently on  the  borders  of  "a  vast  economy  of  mercy" 
which  stretches  beyond  the  boldest  reach  of  our  insight 
and  baffles  all  our  attempts  to  reduce  it  to  a  precise  theo- 
logical system.  We  simply  make  our  home  in  the  in- 
spiring presence  of  that  Eternal  Compassion  which  from 
the  first  hour  until  now  has  been  waiting  in  an  entreat- 
ing attitude  that  it  might  give  itself  for  all  and  to  all 
who  will  receive  the  gift  of  new  and  everlasting  life. 

i  Van  Dyke,  "Gospel  for  a  World  of  Sin,"  p.  184. 


III. 

THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

Certain  people  fall  out  by  the  way  when  any  move- 
ment is  made  toward  a  deeper  and  richer  understanding 
of  the  divine  force  in  the  life  of  the  world.  Men  quite 
universally  believe  in  God  the  Creator,  and  a  majority 
of  them  would  say  that  He  is  "the  Father".  But  when 
we  advance  to  our  belief  in  "Jesus  the  Son  of  God", 
some  of  them  do  not  follow  with  us.  They  regard 
Jesus  as  a  noble  teacher,  a  great  leader,  a  beautiful  ex- 
ample, but  the  belief  that  "God  was  manifest  in  the 
flesh",  that  the  Son  of  God  became  the  Son  of  man  as 
a  revelation  and  a  pledge  of  the  way  in  which  the  divine 
and  the  human  must  co-operate  in  the  production  of 
every  Christian  life,  does  not  win  their  assent.  And 
when  we  go  still  further  and  speak  of  "being  baptized 
with  the  Holy  Ghost",  or  of  tarrying  in  Jerusalem  even 
after  we  have  seen  the  life  and  heard  the  words  of 
Jesus,  until  we  are  filled  with  the  Spirit  and  thus  endued 
with  power  from  on  high,  or  of  "receiving  another  Com- 
forter that  shall  abide  with  us  forever",  we  lose  still 
others  from  the  original  company.  There  are,  no 
doubt,  many  in  all  our  evangelical  churches  who,  if  they 
would  give  frank  utterance  to  their  position,  would  say 
that  the  truths  regarding  God  the  Father  and  Jesus  the 

(53) 


54  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

Son,  bound  their  religious  horizon,  and  so  far  as  any 
experience  of  practical  need  or  help  is  concerned,  they 
have  scarcely  heard  that  there  is  any  Holy  Ghost. 

This  is  due  in  part,  no  doubt,  to  the  intellectual  dif- 
ficulties involved  in  the  fuller  belief.  I  have  never 
heard  nor  read  anything  that  seemed  to  me  to  answer  all 
the  questions  that  instantly  arise  when  we  announce  our 
faith  in  the  Trinity,  or  even  to  set  the  doctrine  out  in 
perfect  clearness.  But  if  the  Scriptures  tell  me  the 
truth  about  the  moral  needs  and  spiritual  privileges  of 
men  in  regions  where  it  is  possible  to  verify  the  state- 
ments and  I  find  them  accurate  in  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  thousand  by  actual  experience, 
I  am  then  ready  to  trust  them  when  they  speak  of  im- 
mortality, of  the  final  judgment,  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  and  of  other  matters  which  lie  beyond  our  pres- 
ent experience.  Therefore  I  accept  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  as  a  teaching  of  that  book  which  in  all  moral 
and  religious  matters  has  become  authoritative. 

This  truth  appears  in  such  fundamental  passages  of 
Scripture  as  that  where  Jesus  gave  his  followers  the 
formula  of  baptism.  They  were  to  baptize  men  "into 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  At  the  baptism  of  Jesus  also  the  voice 
of  the  Father  commending  His  Son  to  the  attention  of 
men  and  the  Spirit  descending  upon  Him  as  a  dove 
embodied  the  same  triune  conception.  Jesus  in  His 
last  address  said,  "I  will  pray  the  Father  and  He  shall 
give  you  another  Comforter:"  and  again,  "The  Com- 
forter which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will 
send  in  My  name,  shall  teach  you  all  things."  Paul 
says,  "Through  Him  — that  is,  through  Jesus  Christ — 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLT  SPIRIT.  55 

we  both  have  access  by. one  Spirit  unto  the  Father." 
And  the  familiar  apostolic  benediction,  "The  grace  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  love  of  God  and  the  com- 
munion of  the  Holy  Ghost  be  with  you  all"  brings  be- 
fore us  constantly  the  conception  those  early  Christians 
entertained  of  the  nature  of  God.  It  becomes  natural 
therefore  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  because  it 
was  taught  by  Christ  and  by  those  whom  he  personally 
instructed. 

How  shall  we  think  of  God  then,  as  being  three  dis- 
tinct persons  like  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob?  No,  we 
are  told  that  is  the  heresy  of  tritheism.  Shall  we  say, 
then,  that  one  true  and  living  God  manifests  Himself 
now  as  Father  and  then  as  Son  and  again  as  Holy 
Spirit?  We  are  warned  again  that  this  is  the  heresy  of 
Sabellianism.  The  forms  of  life  with  which  we  are  fa- 
miliar are  not  suitable  for  illustrating  the  conceptions 
given  us  of  the  life  of  God.  Indeed,  it  is  a  rule  in  the 
world  where  we  live  that  as  we  ascend  the  scale  of  being 
the  form  of  life  grows  more  complex.  The  lower  forms 
of  life  composed  of  a  single  cell,  merely  dividing  them- 
selves into  two  when  reproduction  takes  place  and  per- 
forming all  the  functions  of  their  lowly  calling  with  that 
single  cell,  are  readily  understood.  A  mollusc  is  more 
elaborate  but  is  stilf  a  simple  affair.  But  when  we  come 
to  the  mode  of  man's  existence  we  are  faced  by  many  a 
mystery  which  we  cannot  solve.  We  do  not,  therefore, 
count  it  strange  that  Jesus  should  indicate  in  his 
matchless  teaching  that  there  are  mysterious  self-rela- 
tionships and  an  infinite  richness  of  Being  in  the  nature 
of  God  which  our  present  nomenclature  and  present 
discernment  fail  to  thoroughly  comprehend. 


56  TEE    MAIN   POINTS. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  seems  to  be  an  expression 
for  the  eternal  self -companionship  that  God  enjoys 
within  His  own  nature,  and  for  "the  manifold  helpful- 
ness with  which  He  offers  Himself  to  the  world."  The 
Son  embodies  the  eternal  human  life  of  God,  infinite  in 
its  greatness,  but  human  in  its  resemblances;  the  Spirit 
represents  the  active,  loving  communion  that  exists  be- 
tween the  Faither  and  the  Son.  An  illustration  used  by 
Wilberforce  has  added  many  minds  in  picturing  this 
truth  to  themselves.  You  hold  in  your  hand  a  flower. 
You  find  there  first  of  all  that  'mysterious  thing  which 
we  call  "life."  No  man  hath  seen  "life"  at  any  time. 
But  this  life  manifests  itself  in  a  visible  form.  The 
flower  is  white  and  of  a  certain  shape.  And  then  pro- 
ceeding from  the  hidden  life  and  from  this  revealing 
form  of  the  flower,  is  a  fragrance  that  fills  all  the  room 
where  we  are  sitting.  The  life,  and  the  revealed  form 
of  that  life,  and  the  invisible  fragrance  which  proceeds 
from  them,  are  three,  and  yet  there  are  not  three  flowers, 
but  one  flower.  This  is  only  an  illustration,  and  an 
imperfect  one.  We  cannot  press  it  at  all  points,  for 
even  the  intricacies  of  flower  life  would  not  bear  the 
total  strain  of  portraying  the  divine  life.  It  aids  us, 
however,  in  having  same  appreciation  of  what  the 
Scriptures  mean  in  speaking  of  one  God,  "the  Father 
and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost." 

I  have  referred  to  this  general  idea  of  the  Trinity  as 
being  a  necessary  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  seems  to  be  characteristic  of  a 
progressive  revelation  that  one  person  of  the  Trinity 
should  reveal  another,  as  God  educates  his  children  into 
deeper  fellowship  with  Himself.  In  the  beginning  the 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  57 

Absolute  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  "No 
man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time."  "No  man  can  see 
Him  and  live."  Then  Jesus  the  Son  came  revealing 
Him.  "This  is  my  beloved  Son;  hear  ye  Him/'  was  the 
sure  word  from  the  Father.  "He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
seen  the  Father,"  was  Christ's  account  of  Himself. 
Then  comes  the  Holy  Spirit  revealing  the  deeper  mean- 
ing of  the  life  and  work  of  Christ.  "He  shall  testify 
of  Me/'  said  Jesus.  "He  shall  take  the  things  of  Mine 
and  shew  them  unto  you."  "He  shall  bring  to  your  re- 
membrance whatsoever  things  I  have  said  unto  you." 
There  was  a  richer  understanding  of  God  the  Father 
after  Jesus  came  into  the  world  at  Bethlehem,  and  there 
was  a  richer  understanding  of  Christ  the  Son  after  the 
Holy  Spirit  entered  the  hearts  of  believers  at  Pentecost. 
The  former  revelation  was  carried  along  and  more  was 
added.  So,  as  evangelical  believers,  we  are  baptized 
into  the  fullness  of  "the  love  of  God,  the  grace  af  our 
Lord  Jesns  Christ,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

As  we  read  the  four  Gospels  and  the  book  of  Acts 
we  find  that  men  who  had  believed  in  God  the  Father 
from  infancy,  and  who  had  followed  Christ,  hearing  his 
words,  seeing  His  life  and  feeling  His  influence,  still 
received  something  more  as  they  came  to  the  fullness 
of  religious  privilege.  In  the  upper  room,  Jesus 
breathed  on  them  and  said  "Keceive  you  the  Holy 
Ghost."  He  further  bade  them  to  tarry  and  wait  for 
the  promise  of  the  Father;  to  tarry  in  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem, in  the  heart  and  center  of  the  old  dispensation, 
in  the  enjoyment  of  religious  experiences  already  at- 
tained, until  they  should  be  endued  with  new  power 


58  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

from  on  high.  After  His .  ascension  they  all  con- 
tinued in  prayer  and  supplication  for  ten  days.  When 
the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come  they  were  all 
with  one  accord  in  one  place,  and  suddenly  they  were 
all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  Something  additional 
had  come  to  them,  and  that  something  was  the  inner  ex- 
perience of  the  presence  and  power  of  God.  They  were 
taking  into  their  lives  that  quickening,  transforming, 
guiding,  abiding  Presence  that  the  Scriptures  name 
"the  Holy  Spirit."  When  we  likewise  know  the  Father 
as  revealed  in  Christ,  and  when  we  follow  the  earthly 
history  of  the  Son,  there  comes  to  us  further,  not  a  mere 
memory  of  what  the  Son  was,  not  an  abstract  influence 
but  a  personal  Presence  to  stand  within  our  hearts,  tak- 
ing the  things  of  Christ,  his  words,  deeds,  life,  death 
and  resurrection  and  showing  them  unto  us,  revealing 
their  richer  meaning  and  guiding  us  into  all  truth. 

In  the  gallery  at  Dresden  the  Sistine  Madonna  hangs 
in  a  room  by  itself,  no  other  painting  in  the  great  gallery 
being  deemed  worthy  to  share  its  honor.  Just  opposite 
the  picture  stands  a  bust  of  Raphael  as  though  he  too 
might  have  taken  his  place  in  the  group  of  visitors  to 
further  study  his  own  work.  But  suppose  that  the  liv- 
ing Raphael  could  come  and  actually  stand  among  the 
beholders  and  interpret  his  picture;  nay,  more,  suppose 
that  he  could  stand  within  each  beholder  and  that  the 
beholder  could  then  look  upon  the  picture  through 
Raphael's  eyes  and  interpret  it  by  Raphael's  spirit! 
This  suggests  the  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  What  man 
knoweth  the  things  of  art  save  the  spirit  of  an  artist? 
"What  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man  save  the  spirit 
of  a  man?  Even  so  the  things  of  God  knoweth  no  man, 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLT  SPIRIT.  59 

but  the  Spirit  of  God"  as  He  comes  to  dwell  within  the 
receptive  heart  of  a  believing  Christian. 

When  Jesus  was  here  the  basis  of  His  work  was  Pal- 
estine. Now  the  basis  'of  the  Spirit's  work  is  the 
Church,  the  body  of  people  who  believe  in  Christ  and 
seek  to  follow  Him  into  the  richer  experiences  of  Chris- 
tian life.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  scriptural  name  for 
this  presence  of  God  in  the  Church.  All  this  is  clearly 
apparent  as  we  read  the  book  of  Acts.  "The  Holy 
Ghost  said,  Separate  unto  me  Saul  and  Barnabas."  "It 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us,"  they  said  in 
rendering  the  finding  of  the  Council.  "Why  hath 
Satan  filled  thine  heart  to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  said 
Peter  to  Ananias.  "Ye  are  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  was  Paul's  word  to  the  Corinthians.  It  is  this 
divine  presence  that  gives  the  Church  its  authority  and 
power.  Men  have  been  left  without  any  visible  infalli- 
ble guide.  The  Roman  Catholics  have  sought  to  be- 
lieve in  an  infallible  Pope,  and  Protestants  have  some- 
times claimed  to  have  an  infallible  book,  but  both  are 
wrong.  None  is  infallible  but  God,  and  neither  the 
Pope  nor  the  Bible  is  God.  The  only  infallible  guide 
is  that  abiding  Presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
C'harch  whose  leading  is  ever  to  be  sought  by  devout 
men. 

The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  first  to  convince  men 
of  their  need  of  salvation.  "When  He  is  come  He  will 
reprove  the  world  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness  and  of 
judgment."  This  is  done  by  the  Holy  Spirit  abiding 
in  the  true  Church,  and  by  none  else.  When  men  have 
been  shown  the  way  of  salvation  plainly  and  scriptur- 
ally,  why  do  they  not  turn  around,  accept  Jesus  Christ 


60  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

as  Saviour,  and  begin  to  live  Christian  lives?  Because 
perchance  they  do  not  feel  any  need  of  salvation.  The 
offer  is  reasonable  and  beautiful,  but  it  meets  no  re- 
sponse on  their  part  because  there  is  no  sense  of  lack. 
The  men  were  there,  the  truth  was  there,  but  there  was 
not  that  convincing  and  convicting  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  Church  which  comes  in  answer  to  the 
faith  and  prayer  of  the  people.  Something  more  is 
needed  than  merely  to  tell  men  that  they  are  going 
wrong  and  to  show  them  the  right.  It  is  the  office  of 
the  Spirit  to  convict  men  of  their  need,  and  to  that  end 
His  power  and  Presence  must  be  sought  in  all  the  serv- 
ices and  work  of  the  Church. 

When  men  have  faced  about  and  accepted  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Spirit  also  bears  witness  with  their  spirits 
that  they  are  the  children  of  God.  The  witness  of  the 
Spirit  is  a  truth  that  has  been  preached  with  great  com- 
fort to  believing  hearts,  but  it  has  sometimes  wrought 
confusion.  The  attention  has  been  led  away  from  the 
mercy  of  the  Father  in  which  we  had  been  brought  to 
trust,  away  from  Jesus  Christ  whom  we  had  begun  to 
follow,  and  fixed  upon  our  own  emotions.  Unless  cer- 
tain emotions  had  come  to  us  which  had  come  to  others 
we  were  made  to  feel  that  we  were  not  Christians.  In 
such  case  the  object  of  faith  would  not  be  God  nor 
Christ  nor  the  promises,  but  our  own  sensibilities.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact  we  know  that  when  a  man  turns  away 
from  sin  and  accepts  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ,  he  is 
forgiven — no  matter  what  his  emotions  that  day  or  the 
next  week  may  be,  he  is  forgiven.  To  assert  otherwise 
would  be  to  deny  the  moral  realities  in  the  character 
of  God.  When  a  man  makes  a  persistent  and  sincere 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLT  SPIRIT.  61 

attempt  to  follow  Christ  it  is  increasingly  borne  in 
upon  him  that  he  is  in  the  right  way,  in  the  way  of 
eternal  life — he  is  doing  what  God  would  have  him 
do.  By  and  by  he  knows  his  acceptance  into  the  divine 
family  through  no  coldly  reasoned  process,  but  by  a 
glad  sense  of  inner  warmth  and  peace.  This  is  the  psy- 
chology of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  The  work  of  the 
Spirit  is  not  apart  from  but  through  the  mental  and 
spiritual  faculties  of  the  man's  own  nature,  and  the 
sense  of  acceptance,  which  sooner  or  later  appears  in  all 
healthy  Christian  experience,  is  the  manifestation  of 
this  witness  of  the  Spirit. 

Furthermore,  the  indwelling  presence  of  the  Spirit 
changes  the  whole  nature  of  the  believer  progressively. 
"The  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  us."  The  characters  of  men 
are  changed  in  some  degree  by  environment,  by  the 
homes  they  live  in,  by  the  work  they  do,  and  by  the 
society  they  meet.  They  are  changed  still  more  from 
within  because  the  inner  state  of  mind  and  heart  gives  to 
or  withholds  from  the  environment  its  complete  oppor- 
tunity. The  character  is  changed  profoundly  by  the 
Presence  of  the  Comforter,  the  Guide,  the  Friend,  who 
abides  with  the  believer  to  lead  him  into  all  truth  and 
into  all  holy  character.  The  transforming,  transfigur- 
ing power  of  the  Spirit  is  one  of  the  most  blessed  as- 
pects of  His  work.  How  many  people  know  a  warmer 
love  for  God,  a  greater  interest  in  devotion,  a  greater 
compassion  for  men,  a  more  effective  service  in  the  king- 
dom, an  increased  sympathy,  tenderness  and  helpfulness 
in  all  their  conduct,  all  of  which  has  come  from  the  in- 
dwelling presence  of  the  Spirit!  The  promise  of  old 


62  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

was,  "the  spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  come  upon  thee,  and 
thou  shalt  be  turned  into  another  man." 

Paul  speaks  of  this  progressive  sanctification  of  hu- 
man life  as  a  process  where  "the  fruits  of  the  Spirit'* 
grow  out  of  the  man.  The  prune  tree  bears  prunes  not 
by  conscious  effort  and  straining,  now  bringing  out 
prunes  on  this  branch  and  now  on  another;  it  simply 
cherishes  abundant,  healthy  prune  life  in  its  roots, 
trunk,  branches,  twigs  and  leaves,  and  then  with  that 
glad  spontaneity  to  which  Jesus  once  referred  in  de- 
scribing the  processes  of  his  Kingdom,  "it  bears  fruit  of 
itself/'  The  fruits  of  the  Spirit  will  also  come  inevit- 
ably and  spontaneously,  Paul  says,  out  of  the  character 
of  a  rightly  constituted  believer.  "Love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  mildness,  and 
self-control"  will  be  the  natural,  essential  result  of  the 
indwelling  Spirit.  Such  a  result  could  not  be  accom- 
plished in  any  other  way.  You  cannot  be  loving  by  ef- 
fort, nor  joyous,  nor  be  filled  with  peace;  these  states 
come  by  indirection.  The  quality  of  life  -that  bears 
these  fruits  is  diffused  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  Spirit  also  guides  us  into  all  truth.  The  com- 
munication of  truth  from  God  to  men  was  not  closed 
when  the  canon  of  our  Bible  was  complete.  God  had 
still  many  things  to  say  unto  the  world  but  it  could  not 
bear  them.  The  work  of  revelation  is  limited  by  the 
material  the  Spirit  has  to  work  upon.  In  the  richer  un- 
derstanding and  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church  which  is  a  process  of 
revelation  under  the  tuition  of  the  Spirit,  and  in  the 
great  lessons  learned  by  the  accumulation  of  Christian 
experience,  the  Spirit  has  been  guiding  the  world  of  be- 


THE  WOKK  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  63 

lievers  into  a  fuller  heritage  of  truth.  The  promise  was 
not,  to  any  age  or  to  any  set  of  men,  one  of  an  instan- 
taneous vision  of  all  truth,  but  of  a  gradual,  progressive 
unfolding — "He  shall  guide  you  into  all  truth."  With 
devout  John  Robinson  we  are  all  "confident  that  God 
hath  more  truth  yet  to  break  forth  out  of  his  holy 
word,"  and  the  total  history  of  the  Christian  Church 
with  the  expanding  Christian  experience  of  faithful 
men,  and  the  richer  understanding  of  that  "word"  seems 
to  be  the  appointed  channel  for  this  guidance  of  the 
Spirit. 

Our  trust  for  the  future  therefore  is  in  this  holy  guid- 
ance promised  to  us.  There  are  problems  confronting 
us  which  are  not  solved  in  any  of  the  books.  There  are 
no  heads  among  us  wise  enough  to  map  out  the  future. 
We  are  being  told  that  the  Church  does  not  adequately 
represent  the  spirit  of  Christ.  The  Eitualist  would 
make  it  a  matter  of  forms,  rites  and  sacraments.  Same 
clear,  strong  thinkers  would  make  it  merely  a  place  of 
high  intelligent  moral  instruction.  The  Socialist 
would  make  it  a  place  where  economic  questions  are  dis- 
cussed and  the  wage  earner  aided  in  his  struggle.  I  do 
not  believe  with  the  Eitualist  that  God  intends  to  make 
the  Church  a  mere  Priest,  nor  with  the  educational  party 
that  He  would  have  it  solely  a  Teacher,  nor  -with  the 
Socialist,  that  it  should  be  a  Judge  or  a  Divider  over 
men;  and  yet  I  do  believe  that  if  the  Church  is  to  be 
a  power  in  the  twentieth  centuary  it  must  be  something 
other  and  greater  than  it  is  to-day.  My  trust  is  not  in 
the  cleverness  of  any  plans  we  have  devised  nor  in  the 
forward  reach  of  our  present  sagacity,  it  is  rather  in  a 
church  which  seeks  and  cherishes  the  Presence  of  the 


64  THE    MAIN    POINTS. 

Holy  Spirit.  The  church  that  turns  to  Him  for  a 
deeper,  richer  baptism  of  real  life,  will  be  led  by  Him 
into  the  true  form  of  service  as  one  essential  part  of  "all 
the  truth." 

The  day  of  Pentecost  seems  to  me  to  have  been  no 
mere  detached  wonder,  standing  at  the  opening  of  a  new 
dispensation  to  command  attention.  It  was  a  specimen 
of  the  way  in  which  the  powers  of  an  Unseen  World  may 
be  called  to  the  aid  of  our  own  moral  forces  in  establish- 
ing the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  discouraged  hearts  of 
men  turning  away  from  spiritual  ministry  back  to  their 
fishing,  were  summoned  once  more  to  their  noble  tasks 
by  the  Risen  Christ  and  then  established  in  the  new  pur- 
pose by  the  outpoured  Spirit.  The  tongues  which  had 
been  timid  and  denying  were  now  invigorated  and  made 
to  speak  the  word  with  all  boldness,  as  the  Spirit  gave 
them  utterance.  There  came  to  the  enfeebled  commu- 
nity of  believers  not  the  false  stimulus  of  wine  as  was 
supposed,  but  the  mighty  baptism  of  divine  power 
which  filled  all  the  city  with  its  teaching  and  sent  out 
a  new  church  on  its  world-wide  conquering  career. 

Men  have  sought  to  change  themselves  from  sinners 
into  saints,  and  from  moral  deadness  into  moral  power 
by  all  kinds  of  efforts.  Baptismal  rites  and  anointings, 
incantations  and  magical  ceremonies,  ablutions  in  sacred 
rivers  and  streams,  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem  and  pil- 
grimages to  Mecca,  ascetic  practices  and  hideous  self-in- 
flictions have  all  been  tried  and  none  have  availed.  The 
change  from  moral  disease  and  feebleness  to  moral 
health  and  vigor  is  effected  by  receiving  into  the  life 
through  repentance  and  faith,  the  very  Spirit  of  the 
Living  God.  You  have  admired  the  example  of  Christ 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  65 

and  you  have  approved -his  teachings.  You  only  won- 
dered how  you  could  incorporate  them  into  daily  life. 
The  form  of  godliness  you  cordially  approved,  and  now 
you  await  the  power.  This  new  experience  which  will 
enable  you  to  make  progress  toward  the  ideal  that  sum- 
mons you,  comes  not  by  passive  waiting  until  some  time 
when  it  shall  be  thrust  upon  you.  After  you  have 
turned  away  from  your  sins  and  presented  to  your  Lord 
a  clean,  consecrated  life,  the  word  of  Jesus  is  "take." 
"Take  ye  the  Holy  Ghost,"  He  said  as  He  breathed  on 
His  disciples  in  the  upper  room.  The  word  translated 
"receive"  is  a  word  that  is  repeatedly  translated  "take." 
"Take  this  and  divide  it  among  yourselves,"  Jesus  said 
as  He  passed  them  the  cup.  "Take  Him  and  crucify 
Him,"  Pilate  cried  to  the  mob.  And  so  in  many  other 
passages  the  term  means  active*  voluntary  appropria- 
tion. It  is  in  this  way  that  men  are  to  "take  the  Holy 
Ghost."  The  blessing  of  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  not  to  be  passively  awaited  but  actively  claimed. 
Whensoever  you  will,  you  may  "take"  the  blessed  Pres- 
ence of  Him  who  bears  witness  to  your  salvation,  sancti- 
fies the  heart  and  guides  you  into  all  truth  and  service. 
The  vindication  of  our  belief  in  the  Holy  Spirit  will 
come  not  from  prolonged  attention  to  the  metaphysical 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  nor  from  merely  collecting  an 
imposing  array  of  Scripture  passages  which  contain  the 
words  "Holy  Spirit."  It  will  come  rather  by  an  ever- 
deepening  Christian  experience.  To  the  natural  man, 
many  of  these  truths  are  unintelligible  mysteries. 
"When  set  up  as  independent  propositions  they  are 
often  meaningless  or  self-contradictory.  But  on  the 
other  hand  they  develop  themselves  out  of  experience  in 
The  Main  Points.— 5 


66  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

doing  the  will  of  God.  No  man  can  strive  earnestly  to 
do  the  loving  will  of  God,  the  Father,  without  gaining 
thereby  an  ever-increasing  reverence  for  the  divine 
character  of  the  Christ  who  revealed  the  fullness  of 
that  loving  will  as  a  world-transforming,  spiritual 
power,  and  for  the  divine  quality  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
hearts  of  all  our  fellows  who  have  caught  from  Christ 
the  enthusiasm  for  the  life  of  righteousness  and  love.':  1 
i  President  Hyde,  "The  Reorganization  of  the  Faith," 
New  World,  March,  1899. 


IV. 
THE  MATTER  OF  CONVERSION. 

The  doctrine  of  conversion  has  been  taught  in  most 
helpful  ways  and  it  has  also  been  taught  in  ways  that 
have  wrought  harm.  Men  have  forgotten  the  simplicity 
of  Scripture  and  have  put  forward  notions  that  have  dis- 
couraged and  repelled  souls  that  ought  to  be  rejoicing 
now  in  the  Church  of  God  and  in  the  salvation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  mischief  has  come  from  setting  up  certain 
select  types  of  Christian  experience  and  making  them 
the  sole  standard.  Some  classical  character,  John  Bun- 
yan  perhaps,  or  maybe  some  ungodly  man  in  the  com- 
munity, or  some  woman  with  a  great  capacity  for  re- 
ligious feeling,  has  been  fixed  upon  and  all  were  told 
that  the  experience  of  such  an  one  was  the  accepted 
method  of  entrance  to  the  kingdom;  that  the  bold  in- 
truder who  would  climb  up  some  other  way  was  set 
down  as  a  thief  and  a  robber.  This  soul  selected  as 
possessing  the  true  type  of  religious  life  had  felt  bur- 
dened, guilty,  desperate.  He  then  repented  with  great 
sorrow  and  contrition.  He  looked  up  and  saw  the  mercy 
of  God  in  Christ.  He  accepted  it  by  a  single,  instant  act 
of  faith.  Immediately  the  burden  of  guilt  rolled  away 
and  there  came  a  full  sense  of  relief  in  his  heart.  He 
felt  lighter,  freer,  and  moved  out  joyously  with  a  great 
sense  of  peace  and  warmth.  And  this  was  taken  as  real 

(67) 


68  THE   MAIN    POINTS. 

conversion,  as  "getting  religion"  and  all  other  lines  of 
entrance  were  held  as  doubtful  and  probably  spurious. 
Thus  the  minds  of  a  whole  congregation  have  been  di- 
rected toward  this  as  the  necessary,  inevitable  road  into 
the  Kingdom. 

It  has  produced  several  unhappy  results.  Those  whose 
experiences  were  thus  dramatic  have  been  encouraged  to 
tell  them,  giving  all  the  details.  No  stories,  not  even 
religious  stories,  are  apt  to  lose  anything  in  the  telling, 
and  without  the  least  conscious  desire  to  exaggerate  or 
deceive,  these  friends  went  on  telling  the  glad  story  and 
gradually  reading  back  into  the  experience  more  bur- 
den, more  heartfelt  joy,  more  sense  of  wondrous  up- 
lift and  of  instant  acceptance  with  God,  than  was 
originally  there.  It  tended  to  beget  pride  in  the  attitude 
toward  those  whose  modest  experiences  were  by  no 
means  so  thrilling.  It  also  put  a  false,  narrow  notion 
into  the  minds  of  children  and  young  people  as  to  what 
ought  to  be  expected  in  seeking  conversion.  It  also  pro- 
duced coldness  in  those  who  were  made  to  feel  that  no 
steps  could  be  taken  toward  leading  Christian  lives  with- 
out this  dramatic  experience  as  an  initiative.  Henry 
Clay  once  said,  "I  am  not  a  Christian.  I  wish  I  was. 
Sometime  I  hope  I  shall  be."  He,  too,  was  waiting  for 
something  to  happen  to  him,  as  lightning  might  fall  out 
of  heaven.  He  reasoned  that  none  but  God  could  send 
these  thrilling  states  of  heart,  and  he  was  waiting  coldly 
and  passively  until  they  should  come,  all  regardless  of 
the  fact  that  whosoever  will  may  come  any  time,  any- 
where, without  reference  to  the  accidents  of  emotional 
experience  that  may  or  may  not  attend  the  coming. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  what  is  conversion?    We  will  not 


THE  MATTER  OF  CONVERSION.  69 

ask  John  Calvin,  John.  Wesley  or  John  Bunyan,  great 
and  good  as  these  men  all  were,  but  take  the  highest 
and  best  authority.  The  word  of  Jesus  was:  "Except  ye 
be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  in 
nowise  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  The  word  which 
Jesus  used  for  "convert"  means  literally  "to  turn 
around"  or  to  change  the  purpose  of."  We  use  it  in  com- 
mon life.  You  "convert"  the  drygoods  box  into  a  dog 
house  by  laying  it  on  its  side,  cutting  a  hole  in  one  end, 
and  roofing  it  over.  Now  instead  of  holding  muslins  it 
shelters  a  dog,  because  you  have  changed  its  purpose. 
The  English  "converted"  the  Old  South  Church  into 
a  riding  school  during  their  occupation  of  Boston  in 
1775.  They  moved  the  pews  about  and  made  stalls 
where  they  stabled  their  horses;  they  exercised  them  in 
the  open  space  in  the  center.  Conversion  meant  the 
change  in  the  use  to  which  the  building  should  be  de- 
voted. 

So  Jesus  looked  upon  men,  and  recognizing  the  fact 
that  all,  in  varying  degrees,  had  gone  wrong,  said  to 
them,  "You  are  living  for  the  wrong  things  and  moving 
in  the  wrong  direction.  Except  you  turn  around  and 
start  with  fresh,  sweet,  clean  purposes  like  little  chil- 
dren, you  cannot  enter  the  kingdom."  The  total  change 
of  purpose  and  direction  in  the  life  of  the  man  is  con- 
version. You  want  to  attain  that  sort  of  character  that* 
is  the  essential  element  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But 
you  are  going  in  the  wrong  direction;  every  year  you 
are  growing  more  selfish,  harder  and  more  unresponsive 
to  God's  spirit,  more  thoughtless  and  irreverent.  You 
must  turn  around;  the  character  that  takes  men  into 
the  Kingdom  lies  the  other  way.  You  imust  face  to- 


70  THE    MAIN    POINTS. 

ward  unselfishness,  purity,  kindness,  devoutness,  trust 
and  love.  This  facing  about  is  the  human  side  of  con- 
version. 

But  a  certain  other  passage  occurs  to  us,  where  this 
entrance  into  the  Kingdom  is  called  a  "new  birth." 
Jesus,  however,  never  spoke  of  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  life  as  "being  born  again"  but  once,  and  that 
was  when  he  was  talking  with  an  expert  theologian. 
Mcodemus  was  a  Master  in  Israel,  well  up  in  theological 
phraseology,  and  only  in  that  single  conversation  at 
night  with  this  man  did  Jesus  describe  the  entrance  to 
the  Kingdom  as  "a  new  birth."  Jesus  met  the  woman 
at  the  well,  the  man  born  blind,  business  men  like 
Zaccheus  and  Matthew,  fishermen  like  Peter,  James  and 
John,  little  children  and  others,  and  upon  none  of  these 
occasions  did  He  speak  to  them  about  the  necessity  of 
taking  the  first  step  by  being  "born  again."  He  told 
them  that  to  enter  the  Kingdom  meant  to  follow  Him, 
or  to  enter  a  door  He  opened,  or  to  accept  an  invitation 
to  something  good  like  a  feast,  or  to  receive  something 
which  He  offered  as  a  gift.  Yet,  in  the  face  of  all  this, 
certain  evangelists  have  gone  about  meeting  the  young 
and  old,  the  hardened  sinners  and  the  little  children, 
with  that  strange  demand  that  staggered  the  Hebrew 
theologian,  "Ye  must  be  born  again,"  as  if  that  was  the 
uniform  custom  of  Jesus  with  inquiring  souls,  as  if 
that  form  of  statement  was  ever  on  His  lips. 

Nicodemus  was  a  cut  and  dried  man;  good  and  pious, 
regular  and  even  in  doing  his  duty.  The  theologian 
in  him,  however,  overlaid  the  human  being.  He  came 
to  Jesus,  "Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come 
from  God,  because  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that 


THE  MATTER  OF  CONVERSION.  71 

thou  doest  except  God  be  with  him."  You  have  it  all 
there,  well  reasoned  out.  It  was  not  the  holy,  beauti- 
ful life,  the  inspiration  in  His  utterances,  the  revelation 
He  made  of  the  Father;  it  was  simply  the  miracles  that 
impressed  Nicodemus.  He  was  one  of  those  of  whom 
Jesus  sadly  said,  "Except  they  see  signs  and  wonders 
they  will  not  believe."  His  approach  to  Jesus,  as  James 
Freeman  Clarke  described  it,  was  "as  cold  and  as  dry  as 
a  syllogism."  "No  man  can  work  miracles  without 
God's  help;  Jesus  works  miracles;  therefore,  Jesus  has 
God's  help."  John  has  probably  given  us  a  summary, 
rather  than  a  detailed,  report  of  the  conversation,  but 
from  what  he  has  recorded  we  easily  gain  the  essential 
spirit  of  it. 

Jesus  seems  to  say,  "Nicodemus,  you  believe  in  the 
kingdom  of  God?  How  will  you  know  it  when  you  see 
it?"  And  the  Master  in  Israel  apparently  was  waiting 
to  recognize  it  by  some  "miracle"  or  "wonder."  His  at- 
tention was  altogether  there  as  he  made  his  approach 
to  the  One  who  came  preaching  and  establishing  that 
Kingdom.  And  Jesus  corrected  him  by  saying,  You 
do  not  know  what  the  Kingdom  is;  you  do  not  know 
what  religion  is.  Unless  you  receive  new  life,  unless 
you  are  born  into  something  different,  you  cannot  even 
see  that  Kingdom,  that  type  of  life  which  I  offer  men. 
This  phrase  about  the  "new  birth"  was  therefore  a  spe- 
cial way  of  describing  the  entrance  upon  a  new  life, 
to  a  special  man  and  is  never  used  by  Jesns  on  any 
other  occasion.  It  was  a  vivid  way  of  saying  that 
every  man  needs  the  gift  of  new  life  from  God.  That 
is  true  of  old  and  young,  of  the  profoundly  wicked  and 
of  innocent  children.  Christian  character  is  attained 


72  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

by  the  development  of  a  certain  form  of  life  and  that 
initial  life  we  receive  as  the  gift  of  God.  Conversion  is 
the  human  act  of  turning  to  God,  and  regeneration  is 
just  a  large  word  to  describe  the  plain  fact  that  God 
gives  new  life  to  all  who  turn  to  Him  in  faith.  "A 
man  is  born  again  by  a  new  beginning  in  the  soul's  life, 
whereby  God  produces  a  life  morally  similar  to  His 
own." 

In  the  case  of  religiously  reared  children,  there  ought 
to  be  nothing  dramatic  or  John  Bunyan-like  in  their 
conversion.  When  they  meet  with  the  deacons  to  apply 
for  admission  to  the  church,  in  response  to  our  ques- 
tion* "When  did  you  become  a  Christian?"  they  often 
say,  "We  don't  know."  Then  the  deacons  feel  like 
thanking  God.  May  they  never  know!  Alas  for  those 
of  us  who  strayed  away  so  far  that  we  do  know  the  day 
and  the  hour  when  we  turned  back!  Is  it  necessary 
then  for  the  children  of  Christian  parents  to  be  con- 
verted? Are  they  ever  born  again?  It  is  necessary 
for  every  life  to  consciously  turn  to  God,  and  that  is 
what  conversion  is.  It  is  necessary  for  every  nature  to 
receive  the  gift  of  new  life  from  God,  and  that  is  being 
"born  again."  The  religiously  reared  children  may 
never  know  the  day  nor  the  hour  when  the  inner  life  of 
trust  and  obedience  emerged  into  self-consciousness — it 
is  not  important  that  they  should — but  they  will  know 
that  there  has  been  a  turning  to  the  Father  and  that 
there  has  been  the  corresponding  gift  of  something  be- 
stowed by  Him. 

The  normal  development  of  the  child's  religious  life 
is  like  the  development  of  his  relation  to  his  parents. 
The  baby  is  born  into  the  family  and  yet  at  the  be- 


TEE  MATTER  OF  CONVERSION.  73 

ginning  his  relation  to  the  father  and  mother  is  simpiy 
a  physical  fact.  The  baby  two  days  old  could  not  be 
said  to  have  love,  trust,  and  obedience  toward  the  par- 
ents; there  is  no  sufficient  consciousness  there  to  bear 
these  states  of  experience;  and  yet  these  constitute 
the  essence  of  sonship  in  the  family.  The  baby  is  born 
the  child  of  the  parents  as  a  physical  fact,  yet  he  must 
afterward  become  loving,  trusting  and  obedient,  which 
qualities  are  the  true  component  parts  of  his  sonship. 
Were  the  child  asked,  "When  did  you  begin  to  love  your 
parents?"  he  could  not  tell.  He  would  say,  "I  do  not 
know;  I  was  born  into  an  atmosphere  favorable  to  that 
form  of  life,  and  as  a  part  of  my  normal  development 
I  learned  to  love,  trust  and  obey  my  parents."  The 
baby  also  knew  nothing  of  prayer,  obedience  or  trust 
in  the  Heavenly  Father.  These,  too,  had  to  be  learned 
by  experience.  And  the  natural  voluntary  entrance 
upon  these  forms  of  experience  ought  to  constitute  the 
conversion  of  every  child  in  a  Christian  home.  The 
parents  who  fail  to  furnish  that  persuasive  atmosphere 
in  the  home  into  which  the  child  shall  come,  and  un- 
der the  gracious  stimulus  of  which  he  shall  grow,  are 
robbing  the  child  of  his  appropriate  birthright. 

There  are  certain  years  that  are  physically  crucial  as 
all  mothers  know,  and  mentally  crucial  as  all  teachers 
know,  and  spiritually  crucial  as  we  all  ought  to  know. 
If  the  years  from  twelve  to  eighteen  are  passed  without 
this  conscious  turning  to  the  Father  and  the  deliberate 
consecration  of  the  life  to  Christian  ideals,  it  is  a  great 
loss.  There  are  parents  who  say  they  do  not  desire  to 
influence  their  children  too  much;  if  the  children  grow 
up  to  be  Christians  they  will  be  very  glad,  but  they 


74  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

would  not  unduly  influence  them  while  they  are  young. 
It  is  a  foolish  shirking  of  responsibility.  You  might  as 
well  say  that  if  your  children  grow  up  and  learn  to  eat 
wholesome  food,  bread,  meat,  vegetables  and  fruit,  and 
do  not  try  to  live  on  cake  and  chocolate  creams;  or  if 
they  grow  up  to  use  good  grammar  and  pronounce  their 
words  as  they  ought  to  be  pronounced,  you  will  be  very 
thankful,  but  you  decline  to  influence  their  choices  and 
decisions  in  these  matters  while  they  are  young. 

The  Koman  Catholic  Church  and  the  Episcopal 
Church  take  it  for  granted  that  the  children  of  their 
own  people  will  be  confirmed  and  become  communicants 
when  they  reach  a  proper  age.  It  is  a  wholesome  prac- 
tice. The  lack  of  deep,  fine  religious  life  in  so  many 
Catholics  is  not  the  fault  of  this  habit  of  expecting  the 
children  of  the  church  to  come  one  and  all  into  the 
church;  the  lack  is  in  the  quality  of  church  life  to 
which  they  are  invited.  In  a  Christian  home  it  ought 
never  to  become  an  open  question  with  the  child,  Shall 
I  be  a  Christian  or  not,  any  more  than  it  should  ever 
be  a  question  with  a  girl,  Shall  I  be  virtuous  or  not? 
It  ought  to  be  regarded  by  parents,  by  teachers  in  the 
Bible  school,  by  the  pastor,  and  by  all  concerned  in  the 
child's  welfare,  as  a  foregone  conclusion.  It  ought  to 
be  presented  as  the  only  natural  way  of  life  and  the 
expectation  held  before  the  unfolding  life  from  the 
first  that  it  should  consciously  turn  to  the  Father. 

The  fearless  and  thorough  application  of  these  prin- 
ciples that  Jesus  taught,  will  save  to  all  our  Protestant 
churches  many  of  the  children  consecrated  to  God  by 
devout  parents  in  Christian  baptism.  People  have  too 
often  thought  of  the  world  as  a  penitentiary  where  God 


THE  MATTER  OF  CONVERSION.  75 

was  the  warden  and  we  men  and  women  were  the  crimi- 
nals, guilty  and  wicked,  trying  to  gain  our  liberty. 
Or  they  have  regarded  God  as  governor  or  judge,  and 
they  have  sought  to  cast  Christian  experience  in  the 
forms  furnished  by  such  conceptions.  All  such,  erro- 
neous presentations  have  repelled  and  outlawed'  the  real 
children  of  the  Church,  and  the  Kingdom  has  in  conse- 
quence suffered  a  grievous  loss.  These  notions  give 
wrong  ideas  of  the  atonement,  of  conversion  and  of  all 
truths.  Jesus  said,  when  you  speak  to  God  do  not  say, 
Warden  or  Judge,  say,  "Our  Father."  The  worldful 
of  men  is  meant  to  be  a  divine  family.  The  object  of 
all  God's  dealing  with  us  is  to  induce  us  to  accept  that 
fact  and  take  our  places  in  His  family.  The  Father  is 
seeking  to  bring  children  not  by  compulsion,  but  by 
their  conscious  choice  to  recognize  his  love,  to  accept 
his  commands  as  being  best  and  right,  and  through  His 
help  to  obey  them.  Thus  we  come  into  sympathy  and 
fellowship  with  Him. 

Merely  being  born  into  the  world  is  not  being  born 
into  the  family  of  God.  Some  one  has  truly  said, 
"Ideally  and  intentionally  all  men  are  children  of  God, 
but  practically  and  actually  they  are  not."  In  your 
own  home  the  birth  of  your  child  made  him  your  son 
as  a  physical  fact,  but  when  he  was  eighteen  years  old 
his  sonship  did  not  rest  merely  on  the  physical  rela- 
tionship. It  consisted  of  the  elements  of  love,  trust,  and 
obedience  out  of  which  he  had  built  his  real  sonship  by 
right  choices.  If  he  had  been  taken  away  from  you 
the  day  after  he  was  born,  and  had  never  seen  you  again 
until  he  was  eighteen  years  old,  the  fact  of  physical 
relationship  would  have  remained  the  same,  but  the 


76  THE    MAIN    POINTS. 

true  sonship  would  have  been  lacking.  Thus,  even  in 
our  human  families,  real  sonship  is  born  0f  moral  ex- 
perience. So  while  God  is  a  Father  in  that  He  is  the 
Author  of  all  our  human  lives,  true  sonship  toward 
God  is  attained  by  moral  experiences  in  the  heart  of 
every  <man.  As  the  child  must  learn  to  consciously 
take  his  place  in  the  human  family  and  be  a  good  son, 
a  good  brother,  so  every  child  born  into  the  divine 
family  must  take  his  place  through  the  love,  the  trust 
and  the  obedience  that  he  comes  to  exhibit  toward  tho 
Father.  This  deliberate  turning  to  God  by  definite 
choice,  and  the  acceptance  of  a  place  in  His  family, 
constitute  conversion. 

Referring  again  to  that  source  of  such  wholesome 
theology,  how  was  the  Prodigal  Son  converted?  What 
did  it  mean  for  him  to  be  "born  again"?  He  was  in  the 
far  country,  hungry,  ragged,  mean  and  degraded.  He 
finally  came  to  himself,  realizing  that  this  was  no  way 
for  him  to  live,  no  place  for  him  to  be.  He  thought 
of  the  "bread  enough  and  to  spare"  in  his  father's  house. 
He  announced  a  new  determination — "I  will  arise  and 
go  to  my  father,  tell  him  I  have  done  wrong,  ask  him 
to  take  me  in  and  set  me  to  work  somewhere  on  the 
old  farm."  He  carried  out  this  decision,  and  in  com- 
ing to  his  father,  he  was  born  into  a  new  life.  The 
father's  forgiveness,  love  and  welcome — so  much  greater 
than  he  had  dared  to  hope;  the  father's  companionship, 
aiding  him  in  keeping  on  in  the  right  way;  the  new 
conditions  in  the  father's  house,  so  different  from  the 
swine  field,  so  much  more  inspiring  than  the  situation 
of  a  hired  servant,  all  yielded  their  help.  But  there 
was  also  something  new  in  the  prodigal,  a  new  purpose, 


THE  MATTER  OF  CONVERSION.  77 

new  hope,  new  courage;  a  new  sense  of  his  relation  to 
the  father,  in  a  word,  "new  life."  He  was  born  again. 

You  want  to  be  converted?  You  can  be  converted 
right  here.  It  is  your  plain  duty  to  come  home.  It  rests 
with  you  to  tell  the  Father  that  you  have  done  wrong,  to 
ask  His  forgiveness,  and  to  begin  to  do  what  He  would 
have  you  do.  It  is  your  part  to  meet  Him  in  His  house 
as  often  as  you  may,  and  at  His  table,  and  to  speak  to 
Him  in  prayer;  and  wherever  you  are,  tomorrow  and  all 
the  days,  on  the  wide  farm,  to  be  always  doing  some 
thing  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  have  you  do.  This  is 
being  born  again;  this  is  entering  upon  Christian  life. 
The  spirit  of  God  graciously  assists  men  in  doing  all 
this.  Therefore  "regeneration  may  be  defined  as  that 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  a  man  by  which  a  new  life  of 
holy  love,  like  the  life  of  God  is  initiated." 

President  Finney  always  spoke  strongly  against  the 
idea  that  men  cannot  be  converted  whenever  they  will; 
that  they  must  wait  until  something  mysterious  is  done 
for  them  and  in  them  with  which  they  have  nothing  to 
do.  No  man  can  come  to  Christ  until  the  Father  draws 
him,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Father  is  always  draw- 
ing him.  There  must  be  an  effectual  "calling"  before  a 
man  can  enter  the  Kingdom,  but  the  call  is  ever  sound- 
ing forth;  the  word,  the  Spirit,  the  Church,  the  man's 
own  conscience,  all  unite  in  saying,  "Come."  All 
things  are  now  ready  for  Christian  life  and  service,  and 
it  is  the  plain  duty  of  every  man  to  come  home  and  be- 
gin to  live  with  his  father.  No  theories  about  sub- 
stitution, imputed  righteousness  or  other  dogmatic 
mysteries,  dimly  understood  or  half  rejected,  no  expec- 
tations as  to  emotions  similar  or  superior  to  a  set  of 


78  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

emotions  vouchsafed  to  some  other  returning  sinner,  can 
justly  stand  in  the  way  for  a  moment  of  that  plain  obli- 
gation resting  on  each  man  to  come  home.  It  is  not 
your  first  business  to  understand  all  mysteries  and  all 
knowledge;  it  is  not  of  great  significance  that  you  have 
or  have  not  feelings  enough  to  move  mountains;  but  it 
is  of  the  first  importance  that  you  rise  and  go  to  the 
Father  and  begin  through  His  gracious  help  to  do  His 
will.  This  every  man  can  do,  and  when  he  does  this 
he  will  have  entered  upon  the  experience  of  conversion. 
The  Church  has  sometimes  cared  more  about  theology 
than  about  religion;  more  about  keeping  its  dogmatic 
theories  all  in  running  order  and  using  them  upon  all 
the  people  who  came  along,  than  about  helping  people 
to  simply  live  as  their  Father's  children.  This  has 
come  from  following  the  notions  of  men  more  than 
the  plain  words  of  Christ.  When  great  sinners  who 
have  broken  every  one  of  the  ten  commandments  and 
who  have  gotten  away  out  to  the  frontiers  of  ungodli- 
ness, turn  around  it  is  like  breaking  up  the  fountains 
of  the  great  deep.  But  the  turning  of  a  child  or  of  a 
clean,  upright  man  will  not  be  so.  If  he  has  been  telling 
the  truth,  keeping  himself  pure,  acting  the  part  of 
kindness,  living  in  reverence  toward  God  and  in  useful 
service  toward  men,  even  though  there  has  been  no  dra- 
matic experience,  all  these  things  show  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  unconfessed  and  unrealized.  None  of  these  plain, 
useful  qualities  in  the  man's  life  are  to  be  otherwise. 
His  conversion  will  be  the  clearer  recognition  of  his 
place  in  the  Father's  family  and  a  closer  fellowship 
with  the  Saviour  who  assists  men  in  maintaining  that 
place  by  consistent  Christian  conduct. 


THE  MATTER  OF  CONVERSION.  79 

I  have  tried  to  make  it  all  simple,  because  Jesus  made 
it  simple  in  His  teaching  and  in  His  own  method  of  con- 
verting men  to  Himself.  Perhaps  it  has  seemed  as  though. 
I  gave  too  large  a  place  to  human  ability.  I  have  not 
dwelt  at  length  on  regenerating  grace  or  on  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  later  of 
the  results  of  conversion  in  the  chapter  on  Salva- 
tion by  Faith.  I  have  sought  to  make  this  point  clear, 
that  whenever  you  want  to  become  a  Christian  you 
can.  You  need  not  wait  for  a  day  or  an  hour  when 
something  will  happen  to  you,  as  Henry  Clay  was  wait- 
ing. Do  your  part  and  assuredly  God  will  at  once  do 
His.  If  you  face  about  and  turn  to  the  Father,  He  no- 
tices you.  If  you  ask  Him  to  forgive -you,  He  does  it. 
If  you  implore  His  gracious  help  in  living  a  new  life, 
you  will  increasingly  receive  it.  How  much  emotion 
you  may  experience  will  depend  upon  whether  you  have 
an  ardent,  sanguine  temperament  or  a  sluggish  one; 
but  to  deny  that  a  man  is  forgiven  when  he  turns  away 
from  wrong  and  asks  forgiveness  would  be  to  deny  the 
moral  character  of  God.  When  you  start  to  take  your 
place  in  the  Father's  family,  in  His  house,  at  His  table, 
in  that  part  of  His  great  circle  of  children  which  best 
meets  your  need,  and  begin  to  do  what  He  would  have 
you  do,  He  accepts  you  and  begins  to  aid  you  by  His 
grace.  These  gifts  of  recognition,  of  forgiveness,  and 
of  divine  grace  make  "a  new  life."  And  that  is  what 
we  mean  by  being  "born  again,"  by  being  converted  and 
becoming  as  little  children  in  the  family  of  the  Father. 


V. 

SALVATION  BY  FAITH. 

On  the  first  reading  there  seem  to  be  three  views  of 
salvation  put  forward  in  the  Scriptures.  Paul  preached 
"salvation  by  faith."  "By  grace  are  ye  saved  through 
faith,"  he  said.  "The  Gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth."  "Believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  These  are 
some  of  his  best  known  and  most  characteristic  sayings. 
And  James  preached  "salvation  by  works."  "Pure  reli~ 
gion  and  undefiled  before  God  and  the  Father  is  this, 
to  visit  the  widows  and  the  orphans  in  their  affliction 
and  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world."  "What 
doth  it  profit  my  brethren  though  a  man  say  he  hath 
faith  and  have  not  works?  Can  faith  save  him?  Was 
not  Abraham  our  Father  justified  by  works  when  he 
had  offered  Isaac  his  son  upon  the  altar?  Was  not 
Eahab  the  harlot  justified  by  works  when  she  had  re- 
ceived the  messengers  and  sent  them  out  another  way? 
Ye  see  then  how  that  by  works  a  man  is  justified  and 
not  by  faith  only."  These  strong  words  seem  to  set  the 
matter  of  salvation  before  us  in  quite  another  light. 
And  John  preached  "salvation  by  love."  "Every  one  that 
loveth  is  born  of  God.  We  know  that  we  have  passed 
from  death  unto  life  because  we  love  the  brethren.  If 
we  love  one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us."  And  many 
The  Main  Points.— 6  (81) 


82  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

other  words  to  the  same  effect  are  found  in  the  writings 
of  John.  Yet  these  three  are  not  opposing  but  rather 
complementary  views  of  the  same  reality.  Eeal  faith  of 
the  kind  Paul  preached  will  utter  itself  in  works:  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  steady,  effective  work  in  the  Kingdom 
can  only  result  from  that  moral  attitude  toward  God 
which  we  call  faith.  The  good  work  described  by  James 
can  only  be  done  right  when  it  is  done  in  love;  and 
love,  to  be  real  love,  must  stand  before  God  in  the  atti- 
tude of  faith,  and  toward  men  in  the  attitude  of  useful 
service.  So  in  any  complete  view  of  salvation,  faith 
and  work  and  love  proceed  hand  in  hand. 

But  the  moment  we  pronounce  the  words  "salvation 
by  faith/'  many  practical,  hardheaded  people  feel 
straight  off  that  we  are  talking  stuff  and  nonsense.  Per- 
haps this  is  because  they  forget  the  meaning  of  "faith" 
and  the  meaning  of  "salvation."  The  confusion  has 
been  wrought  chiefly  by  making  faith  to  mean  "theolog- 
ical opinion."  Men  are  not  saved  nor  lost  by  their 
opinions.  There  is  no  saving  grace  in  belonging  to  a 
certain  theological  party.  Salvation  is  the  renewal  and 
development  of  the  moral  life,  the  acceptance  and  culti- 
vation of  a  filial  relation  to  God.  This  is  not  accom- 
plished merely  or  chiefly  by  holding  correct  opinions. 
For  example,  one  of  us  may  hold  the  opinion  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  and  may  feel  assured,  there- 
fore, that  he  is  in  the  way  of  salvation.  Eoman  Catho- 
lics are  also  taught  to  hold  the  same  opinion.  But  many 
Catholics  do  not  seem  to  be  making  as  much  progress 
in  moral  life  or  in  the  cultivation  of  the  genuine  filial 
spirit  toward  the  Father  as  are  certain  Unitarians  who 
hold  a  different  theological  opinion  touching  the  point 


SALTATION  BY  FAITH.  88 

named.  Indeed,  "the  gentle  virtues  are  not  plants  that 
bloom  only  on  the  soil  of  orthodoxy.  They  flourish  with 
a  wonderful  disdain  of  ecclesiastical  restrictions  on  the 
unhallowed  domain  of  heresy:  nay,  are  sometimes  found 
blossoming  into  a  strange  luxuriance  on  the  outlying 
wastes  of  heathendom."1  The  notion  of  salvation  by 
opinion  has  wrought  mischief  by  giving  people  the  im- 
pression that  eternal  destiny  might  turn  upon  the  ac- 
ceptance or  refusal  of  an  opinion,  instead  of  turning 
as  it  does  upon  moral  renewal  and  the  acceptance  of  a 
filial  relation  to  God.  On  their  death-beds,  confused 
souls  have  been  urged  to  say  that  they  believed  Jesus 
was  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour  of  the  world;  as  if  that 
expression  of  theological  view  would  work  a  magical 
change  in  their  future  prospects.  But  we  know  now 
that  salvation  is  by  faith  and  that  faith  is  not  mere 
intellectual  assent.  "It  is  not  even  the  intellectual  ac- 
ceptance of  what  God  has  said,  as  being  true.  Faith  is 
not  without  the  element  of  personal  confidence,  self- 
commitment  and  trust." 

Faith  then  is  a  moral  attitude  toward  God.  It  is  a 
state  of  trust  and  confidence,  a  position  of  open  recep- 
tivity toward  the  mercy  and  help  God  waits  to  bestow 
upon  all  who  will  accept  it  at  His  hands.  Conversion 
is  the  voluntary  conscious  turning  of  the  soul  to  God, 
and  when  this  is  done,  God  gives  the  life  thus  offered 
and  opened  to  Him,  forgiveness,  recognition  and  help 
in  undertaking  a  new  course  of  conduct.  Forgiveness 
for  past  sins,  recognition  as  members  of  the  divine  fam- 
ily, and  help  in  walking  as  children  of  the  Father;  these 
are  the  constituent  elements  of  salvation,  and  we  receive 

1  John  Caird,  "University  Sermons,"  p.  4. 


84  THE   WAIN   POINTS. 

them  by  faith,  by  simply  taking  them  as  God  offers 
them. 

Your  own  child  has  his  standing  in  your  family  not 
by  works,  not  by  the  value  of  any  service  he  renders 
you.  He  has  it  simply  by  accepting  your  love  and  en- 
joying the  opportunity  and  help  you  give  him  for  living 
his  life  as  a  son.  He  has  no  thought  of  trying  to  earn 
it,  he  simply  takes  it  through  his  confidence  in  you,  as 
you  desire  him  to  do.  By  your  love,  he  has  his  place 
in  your  home  through  faith.  And  that  is  exactly  what 
Paul  said.  Salvation  is  the  acceptance  of  one's  place 
in  the  family  of  God.  You  do  not  earn  it  by  work; 
it  is  not  withheld  from  you  until  the  value  of  your  ser- 
vice entitles  you  to  demand  it  by  right.  You  simply 
take  forgiveness,  recognition  and  help  because  they  are 
offered  you.  "By  grace  you  are  saved,  through  faith/' 

But  we  are  reminded  that  we  have  all  done  wrong. 
We  cannot  be  dealt  with  as  children  who  have  remained 
obediently  in  the  Father's  house.  We  will  say  then  that 
your  boy  has  left  your  home.  He  is  living  yonder  in 
San  Francisco  with  bad  people  who  are  hurting  him. 
He  is  going  further  and  further  in  his  wrong  career. 
What  do  you  do?  You  go  and  entreat  him  to  come 
home.  You  assure  him  that  you  are  ready  to  forgive 
him,  to  recognize  him  as  your  dear  son  and  to  help 
him  live  a  new  life  if  he  will  only  turn  from  his  wrong 
way  and  come  home.  You  offer  him  salvation  by  faith. 
But  he  tells  you  that  he  is  not  good  enough  to  come 
home;  that  he  has  been  drunk,  been  gambling,  been 
mixed  up  with  bad  men  and  bad  women;  that  he  has 
insulted  you  by  his  course  of  conduct;  and  he  urges 
that  he  be  allowed  to  remain  where  he  is  until  he  has 


SALTATION  BY  FAITH.  85 

ironed  the  moral  wrinkles  out  of  himself  and  Become 
good  enough  to  return;  that  when  all  this  has  been 
accomplished  he  will  come,  accept  your  forgiveness  and 
recognition  and  avail  himself  of  your  help  in  leading 
the  changed  life.  This  is  the  well-known  view  of  sal- 
vation by  ethical  culture  or  by  good,  moral  works.  But 
you  will  not  hear  of  it.  You  insist  that  he  shall  come 
home  now,  not  because  of  any  desert  on  his  part,  but 
because  you  love  him  and  desire  to  bestow  on  him 
forgiveness,  recognition  and  help  and  thus  work  with 
him  for  his  salvation,  by  what  it  is  your  pleasure  to  will 
and  to  do.  But  he  says  again:  "I  am  only  a  boy.  It  is 
a  mystery  to  me  how  a  father  can  forgive  a  son  who 
has  insulted  and  disgraced  him;  who  has  taken  up  with 
the  enemies  of  his  father's  peace.  I  must  wait  until  I 
understand  all  this  and  have  correct  opinions  on  every 
point  in  the  process/'  But  you  insist  that  no  matter 
whether  he  understands  or  not,  whether  his  opinions 
all  match  yours  or  no — it  may  be  he  will  never  under- 
stand a  father's  love  until  he  is  a  father  himself — you 
want  him  simply  to  accept  the  fact  of  your  readiness  to 
forgive,  to  grant  him  recognition  in  the  family  again, 
and  to  help  him  in  living  a  new  life.  If  he  accepts  it 
without  waiting  to  earn  it  by  works  or  to  do  anything 
to  entitle  him  to  it  on  the  ground  of  desert,  and  comes 
home,  that  is  salvation  by  faith. 

The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  again  will  guide  us 
into  simple,  straightforward,  usable  theology.  A  mes- 
senger to  the  far  country  might  have  reminded  the 
prodigal  that  his  father  still  loved  him  and  would  for- 
give him  if  he  would  return  home  and  take  his  place 
again  in  the  family.  But  the  prodigal  said,  "No,  I  must 


86  TEE   MAIN   POINTS. 

work  my  way.  If  I  could  go  home  and  plow  forty  acres 
of  the  wheat  land  on  the  old  farm  or  prune  two  hundred 
of  the  olive  trees,  my  father  might  be  willing  to  take 
me  in."  Before  he  went  he  announced  a  purpose,  you 
remember,  of  asking  for  the  place  of  one  "of  the  hired 
servants/'  When  he  saw  his  father's  welcome,  however, 
which  met  him  while  he  was  yet  a  great  way  off,  he  did 
not  have  the  heart  to  mention  that  matter  of  a  hired 
servant's  place.  He  made  his  honest  confession  of  wrong- 
doing, and  his  presence  there  indicated  his  feeling 
toward  his  father.  And  instantly  the  father  forgave 
him,  accepted  him  into  the  family  life  again,  and  began 
to  aid  and  bless  him  in  his  new  life  at  home.  "Bring 
out  the  best  robe,"  he  cried,  "and  a  ring  and  shoes,  and 
kill  the  best  calf  we  have;  for  this  my  son  was  dead  and 
is  alive  again.  He  is  saved  by  his  faith  in  his  father's 
love  and  by  his  return  home."  And  this  is  the  scrip- 
tural view  of  salvation — not  by  works  nor  by  opinion 
nor  by  ceremonies,  but  by  faith  in  the  great  fact  that 
God  ever  waits  to  forgive  His  children  who  have  done 
wrong,  to  restore  them  to  the  family  and  to  aid  them 
in  living  new  lives  of  righteousness. 

You  naturally  expect  good  conduct  of  your  children, 
as  a  result  of  their  standing  within  your  love  and  help, 
but  they  originally  took  their  places  in  the  home  by 
an  act  of  faith.  Their  present  good  conduct  flows  out  of 
that  solid  fact.  This  justly  illustrates  the  relation  be- 
tween faith  and  works.  We  are  members  of  the  divine 
family  not  because  of  what  we  have  done;  not  because 
we  have  given  a  tenth  of  our  income  to  the  Lord;  nof 
because  we  have  been  kind  and  pure  and  true  in  our 
dealings  with  men:  not  because  we  have  been  faithful 


SALVATION  BY  FAITH.  87 

attendants  at  church:  we  are  members  of  the  divine 
family  simply  because  we  accepted  the  situation  as  Jesus 
made  it  plain  to  us.  We  turned  to  the  Father,  we 
opened  our  hearts  and  received  his  forgiveness,  recogni- 
tion and  help;  and  now  whatever  good  service  we  rendei 
flows  out  of  this  relation  established  by  confidence  in 
God's  grace  and  goodness. 

I  do  not  know  why  there  need  have  been  any  confu- 
sion. It  is  simple  enough.  Human  nature  though  has 
a  way  of  gathering  rubbish  in  its  garretsi  and  thus  oc- 
cupying room  needed  for  useful  things.  In  the  minds 
of  men,  likewise,  the  true  and  useful  conceptions  have 
often  been  overlaid  and  obscured  by  unworthy  accumu- 
lations. Away  back  in  the  time  of  David,  the  truth  of 
salvation  by  faith  was  recognized.  "The  Lord  desireth 
not  sacrifice,  else  would  I  give  it;  He  delighteth  not  in 
burnt  offerings.  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken 
and  contrite  heart."  David  wanted  forgiveness  for  his 
sdn  but  he  could  not  buy  it  by  any  burnt  offerings.  He 
could  not  work  for  it  and  earn  it  by  any  kind  of  service 
or  sacrifice.  He  could  only  come  with  a  broken  and 
contrite  heart  and  freely  accept  it.  Salvation  by  faith 
was  the  one  way  then.  But  true  religion  was  crusted 
over  by  priestly  forms.  Men  fell  into  the  way  of  offer- 
ing sacrifices  and  burnt  offerings,  washing  their  cups 
and  pots,  tithing  their  salt,  their  pepper  and  their  mus- 
tard as  if  these  were  matters  of  life  and  death,  as  if 
their  salvation  depended  on  them.  And  then  Jesus  had 
to  come  and  tell  people  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  this  is 
the  Gospel — God  so  loves  the  world  as  to  give  His  only 
Son;  and  men  are  saved  by  believing  on  Him,  by  taking 
what  He  freely  gives,  and  by  following  Him  into  the 
total  experience  of  eternal  life. 


88  THE   MAiy   POINTS. 

Then  later  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  crusted  over 
religion  again,  and  it  became  a  thing  of  penances  and 
ceremony,  of  mortifications  and  masses  to  earn  the  favor 
of  God.  Again  it  became  necessary  to  clean  house  and 
burn  up  the  ecclesiastical  rubbish  which  was  of  no  use. 
Luther  had  to  come,  and  on  his  painful  pilgrimage  up 
Pilate's  staircase,  see  for  himself  and  for  his  age  what 
a  caricature  of  the  Gospel  the  Roman  system  was.  He 
came  back  to  shake  Germany  and  all  the  more  aspiring 
part  of  Europe  with  his  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith. 
The  forgiveness,  the  recognition,  the  help  of  God  are 
never  bought  from  a  priest,  nor  purchased  through  cere- 
mony nor  earned  by  penances;  they  must  be  freely  ac- 
cepted as  the  gift  of  God  if  they  are  to  be  had  at  all. 

In  my  reading  of  history  I  have  never  found  any  great 
revival  of  religion,  any  great  moral  awakening,  resulting 
except  through  the  simple,  fearless  preaching  to  a  sin- 
ful world  of  this  very  Gospel  of  salvation  by  faith.  It 
was  the  theme  of  Paul  and  of  Chrysostom,  of  Luther 
and  of  Wesley,  of  Edwards  and  of  Finney.  They  never 
preached  salvation  by  opinion.  Wesley  for  example 
strongly  repudiates  such  an  unscriptural  notion.  "What 
is  faith?  Not  opinion  nor  any  number  of  opinions  put 
together,  be  they  ever  so  true.  A  man  might  assent  to 
three  or  to  twenty-three  opinions;  he  might  assent  to 
all  that  is  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and  have 
no  Christian  faith  at  all."  It  is  a  clear  advantage  where 
faith  is  accompanied  by  sound  opinions,  but  the  faith 
itself  is  not  opinion — it  is  moral  rather  than  intellectual. 
Honest  faith  is  preceded  by  repentance  which  is  turn- 
ing away  from  wrong,  and  then  it  openly  accepts  the 
forgiveness,  recognition  and  help  that  God  bestows.  Sal- 


SALVATION  BY  FAITH.  89 

vation,   therefore,  is   the   free,   unpurchasable   gift   of 
God  and  faith  is  the  human  act  of  taking  it. 

We  find  a  good  illustration  offered  in  Victor  Hugo's 
best  book.  Jean  Valjean  had  been  a  galley  slave;  had 
learned  to  think  that  all  men  despised  him,  that  society 
would  never  forgive  him  for  having  committed  crime. 
He  was  released  at  the  end  of  his  sentence,  but  he 
found  the  taverns  turned  him  from  their  doors,  men 
refused  to  employ  him,  the  very  dogs  snarled  upon  him 
if  he  sought  to  sleep  in  their  kennels.  He  went  to  the 
Bishop's  house  and  the  good  man  took  him  in.  The 
Bishop  called  him  "Monsieur,"  treated  him  as  a  man, 
gave  him  the  best  place  at  table  and  the  choicest  room 
in  his  house.  The  Bishop  knew  he  had  been  a  galley 
slave,  but  he  forgave  him,  recognized  him  as  a  brother 
man,  offered  his  help  to  encourage  him  in  a  new  life.. 
Had  Jean  Valjean  earned  it?  He  had  never  done  any- 
thing for  the  Bishop.  Did  the  convict  obtain  it  by 
his  theological  opinions?  Heaven  only  knows  what  his 
opinions  were — they  taught  no  theology  in  the  galleys. 
The  Bishop  freely  offered  it  and  Jean  Valjean  accepted 
it.  It  was  a  sure  word  of  Gospel  truth  for  him.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  his  salvation.  He  saw  in  this  servant 
of  God  a  picture  of  God's  own  willingness  to  forgive,  to 
recognize  and  to  help  men  who  have  done  wrong.  He 
accepted  this  heaven-sent  good  news  and  pressed  forward 
into  the  splendid  Christian  career  that  makes  the  book. 
The  beginning  of  it  all  was  the  Bishop's  preaching,  by 
word  and  by  deed,  the  simple  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
faith.  By  grace — not  by  opinions,  nor  by  ceremonies, 
nor  by  works,  but  by  grace  are  men  saved  through  their 
faith. 


90  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

Men  have  sometimes  thought  of  salvation  as  being 
simply  the  getting  rid  of  an  old  score  and  getting  into 
heaven  when  they  died.  Salvation  by  faith  seemed 
a  very  easy  way  of  accomplishing  it.  Bui  salvation 
is  not  that  —  it  may  include  it,  but  it  is  more.  Salva- 
tion is  the  attainment  of  personal  righteousness  and 
the  enjoyment  of  a  true  place  in  the  family  of  God. 
We  begin  by  the  plain  acceptance  of  what  He  offers. 
Men  have  also  erred  by  thinking  of  faith  as  something 
which  the  soul  could  do  once  for  all,  a  single  assent  to 
some  plan  or  proposition  upon  which  the  man  became 
a  saved  man  forever  after.  But  no,  faith  is  a  constant 
moral  attitude  toward  God.  The  just  shall  live  by  faith. 
It  is  the  way  they  receive  new  life  and  the  way  they 
go  on  and  receive  it  more  abundantly.  It  is  the  abiding 
relation  of  the  soul  to  God. 

How  plain  all  this  is  when  we  turn  to  the  habit  of 
Jesus.  How  did  He  save  men?  He  went  to  the  home 
of  a  stingy,  grasping,  unjust  little  taxgatherer,  who  had 
not  even  asked  him  to  come.  Zaccheus  did  not  know 
how  much  he  needed  Christ,  but  Christ  knew  and  in- 
vited Himself  as  a  matter  of  grace.  It  touched  the 
heart  of  the  publican.  "This  great  teacher  whom  men 
are  calling  the  Son  of  God  comes  to  me,  recognizes 
me,  sits  down  at  meat  with  me  whom  men  despise  be- 
cause I  am  a  publican!"  In  the  course  of  their  conver- 
sation Zaccheus  sees  life  in  a  new  way;  he  becomes  a 
changed  man  under  the  influence  of  Christ's  company 
and  power.  Before  Jesus  goes  away  the  sinful  publi- 
can is  moved  to  say,  "Lord,  if  I  have  taken  anything 
from  any  man  falsely,  I  restore  him  fourfold.  I  have 
lived  a  grasping,  stingy  life,  but  now  the  half  of  my 


SALVATION  BY  FAITH.  91 

goods  I  will  give  to  charity."  And  Jesus  said,  "This 
day  salvation  is  come  to  this  house.  Zaccheus  is  also  a 
child  of  Abraham,  a  member  of  the  family  of  God/' 
Salvation  came  because  Christ  came.  Zaccheus  had  not 
time  to  earn  salvation  or  to  do  anything  except  to  turn 
from  his  former  wrongdoing,  to  announce  a  new  inten- 
tion for  the  future,  and  to  gladly  accept  the  forgiveness, 
recognition  and  help  that  Jesus  offered.  No  Eoman 
Catholic  notions  about  penance,  ceremony  or  mortifica- 
tion entered  in:  no  Protestant  insistence  upon  certain 
opinions  about  substitution  or  governmental  expedients 
or  the  like  is  named:  the  one  thing  that  had  value  was 
the  straightforward  acceptance  of  that  gift  of  new  life 
which  Christ  offered  and  ever  offers  to  those  who  will 
take  it  at  His  hands.  And  it  is  precisely  this  gift  of 
new  life  thus  freely  offered  and  freely  received  that 
brings  renewed  character  and  a  filial  relation  in  the 
family  of  the  Father. 


VI. 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

We  can  readily  understand  why  many  good  people 
are  sensitive  in  regard  to  the  work  being  done  by  those 
scholars  who  in  a  general  way  are  called  '^higher  critics/' 
and  why  they  are  sometimes  offended  when  modern 
views  of  the  Bible,  which  take  into  account  certain 
limitations  and  imperfections,  especially  in  the  older 
Scriptures,  are  put  forward.  The  Bible  has  been  their 
lifelong  friend.  Its  familiar  stories  and  psalms  were 
taught  them  in  childhood.  Its  parables  and  precepts 
have  been  subjects  of  delightful  and  rewarding  study 
during  all  the  years  of  their  maturity.  Its  promises 
and  assurances  have  been  their  comfort  in  many  a  dark 
hour  of  sorrow  and  discouragement.  It  has  become  to 
them  the  book  of  books  not  by  any  decree  of  council  but 
by  a  life  of  sacred  experiences.  They  hope  to  meet 
death  with  some  of  its  confident  words  sounding  in  their 
ears  the  blessed  messages  of  hope.  Therefore  when  the 
modern  scholars  and  higher  critics  seek  to  examine  its 
component  parts,  to  arrive  at  just  and  rational  views  as 
to  the  method  of  their  production,  to  estimate  the 
limited  and  local  elements  mingling  with  what  is  an  en- 
during message  from  the  Eternal,  and  in  doing  all  this 
disturb  certain  long-cherished  opinions,  these  good 
friends  feel  annoyed.  It  seems  to  one  of  them  as  un- 

(93) 


94  TOTE   MAIN   POINTS. 

gracious  as  if  a  student  had  undertaken  a  critical  ex- 
amination of  his  own  mother,  pointing  out  that  the  dear, 
good  lady  had  certain  limitations  in  her  inheritance 
and  early  experience,  that  she  had  freckles  and  a  wart 
or  mole  perhaps,  and  that  upon  certain  occasions  she 
had  spoken  unguardedly  or  at  least  without  the  highest 
wisdom.  The  very  suggestion  of  such  a  discriminating 
inquiry  seems  impertinent  as  well  as  unkind. 

We  may  sympathize  with  this  as  a  sentiment.  We 
are  all  sure  that  for  an  average  congregation  it  is  more 
profitable  to  have  the  minister  spend  his  time  and 
strength  in  teaching  the  people  what  the  Bible  has  to 
&ay,  in  urging  its  commands  and  unfolding  its  promises, 
than  to  have  him  devote  himself  to  an  analytical  ex- 
amination of  the  process  of  its  production.  But 
if  that  dear  mother  referred  to  had  been  set  up 
as  without  fault  or  human  imperfection  and  almost 
made  an  object  of  worship:  if  the  claim  had  been  put 
forth  that  in  all  points  she  was  absolutely  infallible: 
and  if  at  a  later  date  her  children  who  had  been  taught 
this  discovered  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  was  not 
true;  and  if  their  faith  in  her  and  in  the  whole  system 
of  holy  influences  and  helps  which  she  had  proclaimed 
was  thus  seriously  impaired:  and  if  their  discoveries 
had  led  them  at  last  to  question  both  the  intelligence 
and  the  honesty  of  those  who  made  such  claims,  then 
it  would  be  the  duty  of  reverent,  thoughtful,  and  care- 
ful men  to  come  in  and  explain:  to  teach  the  chil- 
dren to  distinguish  between  that  which  is  absolute  and 
infallible,  and  that  which  may  render  us  an  inestimable 
service,  even  though  it  stops  short  of  infallibility.  A 
man's  mother  is  certainly  one  of  his  best  friends,  and 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF   THE  BIBLE.  95 

it  in  no  wise  impairs  the  blessedness  of  her  influence 
to  admit  that  with  all  her  goodness,  she  still  shares  with 
the  rest  of  us  in  certain  human  limitations.  The  Bible 
is  beyond  all  question  the  book  of  books,  and  it  is  in 
the  interests  of  faith  and  of  securing  a  larger  usefulness 
for  that  book  as  a  practical  influence  on  the  human 
heart,  that  reverent  and  thoughtful  men  endeavor  to 
place  our  confidence  in  it  upon  foundations  that  stand 
sure. 

It  is  full  of  encouragement  to  note  that  this  work 
is  being  done  so  widely  in  the  Church  by  earnest,  devout 
Christian  men.  Confused  souls  that  had  wandered  into 
a  far  country  of  doubt,  into  a  region  entirely  apart  from 
any  genuine  faith  in  the  Bible,  are  being  brought  home 
by  that  "natural and  discriminating  criticism  of  the  Old 
Testament  to  which  Christ  Himself  has  shown  us  the 
way  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  Some  of  the  very 
facts  which  are  now  being  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  churches  by  constructive  scholars  like  President 
Harper,  Washington  Gladden  and  Prof  essorLadd  of  Yale, 
were  formerly  brought  out  with  a  great  flourish  by 
Tom  Paine  and  by  Eobert  G.  Ingersoll  as  being  death- 
blows to  Christian  faith.  They  did  it  bitterly  and  sneer- 
ingly,  for  their  aim  was  to  destroy.  It  is  an  easy  task 
for  any  clever  infidel  writer  to  triumph  over  the  belief 
in  the  equal  and  absolute  inspiration  of  every  part  of 
the  Bible.  Some  of  you  remember  a  lecture  on  "God 
and  His  Book/'  Certain  passages,  culled  chiefly  from 
the  Old  Testament  and  cleverly  arranged,  made  it  al- 
most seem  as  if  the  God  we  were  commanded  to  worship 
was  not  a  righteous  being.  It  was  no  answer  to  say 
that  God  is  God  and  has  a  right  to  do  as  He  pleases 


96  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

and  even  to  do  what  seems  to.  us  wrong  if  He  chooses. 
Such  a  claim  would  be  monstrous!  If  righteousness  as 
He  has  revealed  it  to  us  in  the  teachings  of  His  Son 
is  not  righteousness  for  Him  as  well  as  for  us,  then 
we  are  all  astray  and  no  rational  worship  is  possible. 
We  cannot  look  up  and  trust  Him  except  in  the  confi- 
dence that  righteousness  here  is  righteousness  there. 

Certain  passages,  too,  laid  side  by  side,  show  diver- 
gence in  some  of  the  Scripture  narratives.  These  diver- 
gences are  there  if  any  one  has  eyes  to  see,  and  they 
quite  rule  out  all  claims  of  infallibility  or  of  exact  and 
perfect  verbal  inspiration — for  infallibility  is  infallibility 
beyond  the  possibility  of  a  disagreement  and  not  a  mere 
high  excellence  of  correctness  that  approximates  perfec- 
tion. Our  belief  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  must 
recognize  and  adjust  itself  to  these  facts.  Scholars  in 
the  Church  are  therefore  explaining  the  Bible  to  us» 
facing  all  the  truth  fearlessly,  and  building  a  secure  con- 
fidence in  the  worth  and  authority  of  the  Bible,  not 
upon  insecure  theories  about  the  writings  it  contains, 
but  upon  the  plain  facts  themselves.  They  are  doing  it 
as  Christian  men  who  trust  in  what  these  messages  bring, 
for  their  own  eternal  salvation.  We  may  rest  assured 
that  they  have  no  desire  to  scuttle  the  ship  in  which 
they  and  we  and  all  believing  men  sail  toward  an  un- 
known sea.  So  we  look  with  glad  confidence  to  see  what 
they  are  doing  in  the  interests  of  truth;  faith  and  nosi- 
tive  help  for  human  needs. 

Three  views  of  the  Bible  have  been  advanced.  First 
it  has  been  claimed,  as  already  stated,  that  it  is  in 
every  part  the  infallible  word  of  God:  that  these  words 
are  His  words  as  truly  as  though  He  had  spoken  them 


TEE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  97 

with  His  own  mouth  or  written  them  with  His  own 
hand;  and  that  His  dictating  them  to  certain  inspired 
men  is  what  gives  them  their  authority. 

This  view  is  not  true,  as  any  one  can  see  who  reads 
the  Bible  without  evading  or  twisting  the  facts.  It  rests 
upon  an  outside  theory  rather  than  upon  anything  the 
Bible  says  about  itself.  The  main  passage  quoted  in 
support  of  it  is  that  from  Timothy,  which  is  said  to 
mean  that  "all  Scripture,"  that  is,  the  entire  contents  of 
our  ordinary  version,  and  nothing  more  nor  less,  "is 
given  by  inspiration  of  God."  But  the  true  meaning 
of  this  statement  by  Paul,  as  the  Revised  Version  more 
correctly  gives  it,  is  "Every  Scripture  inspired  of  God 
is  also  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correc- 
tion, for  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness,  that  the 
man  of  God  may  be  furnished  completely  unto  every 
good  work."  Paul  is  not  deciding  upon  the  infallible 
inspiration  of  this  entire  body  of  writings — he  could 
not  do  that,  as  some  of  them,  the  four  Gospels  for  ex- 
ample, were  not  written  or  circulated  until  after  his 
death.  He  is  not  setting  the  S'eal  of  inspiration  even 
upon  that  portion  of  the  New  Testament  writings  that 
had  been  written,  for  no  authoritative  collection  had 
then  been  made.  He  is  simply  stating  that  all  writings 
which  are  given  by  inspiration  of  God  are  profitable.  He 
is  passing  upon  the  moral  and  spiritual  edification  to 
be  gained  from  such  writings  wherever  they  may  be 
found. 

One  other  passage  sometimes  cited  in  proof  of  the 
unique  and  absolute  infallibility  of  the  writings  in  the 
Bible  is  that  in  the  closing  verses  of  the  book  of  Rev- 
elation. "If  any  man  shall  add  unto  these  things,  God 
The  Main  Points.— 7 


98  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

shall  add  unto  him  the  plagues  that  are  written  in  this 
book;  and  if  any  man  shall  take  away  from  the  words 
of  the  book  of  this  prophecy,  God  shall  take  away  his 
part  out  of  the  book  of  life."  But  as  considerable  por- 
tions of  the  New  Testament  were  composed  after  these 
words  were  written  and  as  no  recognized  collection  had 
been  made  during  the  lifetime  of  the  author  of  them, 
he  certainly  was  not  seeking  to  set  a  defensive  seal  on  all 
the  Bible  or  on  the  New  Testament,  but  evidently  had 
in  mind  simply  the  protection  from  mutilation  or  ad- 
dition of  the  book  of  Eevelation  which  he  himself  had 
just  written. 

And  if  we  turn  to  the  plain  facts  we  discover  how 
impossible  is  the  claim  of  absolute  infallibility.  In  his 
twenty-seventh  chapter,  Matthew  quotes  a  verse  from  the 
Old  Testament  and  states  that  it  is  from  "Jeremiah 
the  prophet."  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  not  found  in 
Jeremiah  at  all;  it  is  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Zech- 
ariah.  Matthew  quoting  from  memory  and  writing  per- 
haps with  no  manuscript  copy  of  the  Old  Testament  be- 
side him,  such  manuscripts  being  at  that  time  heavy, 
cumbersome  and  expensive,  made  a  slip  of  memory. 
Mark  in  his  third  chapter  refers  to  something  that  David 
did  as  he  states  "in  the  days  of  Abiathar  the  high 
priest."  When  we  turn  to  the  account  of  the  event  in 
first  Samuel,  however,  we  find  that  Ahimelech  was  high 
priest.  Paul  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  first  Corinthians 
refers  to  a  certain  slaughter  of  Israelites  and  states  that 
there  "fell  in  one  day  three  and  twenty  thousand." 
When  we  turn  back  to  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Num- 
bers where  the  occurrence  is  recorded,  we  find  that  it 
was  "twenty-four  thousand"  that  fell.  The  exact  num- 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  99 

her  had  escaped  Paul's  mind  and  he  was  probably  writ- 
ing where  he  had  not  access  to  the  manuscript  to  verify 
his  figures.  The  inscription  placed  upon  the  cross  of' 
Christ  is  also  a  good  illustration.  We  might  have  sup- 
posed that  the  sacred  importance  of  the  occasion,  the 
fewness  of  the  words  and  the  threefold  repetition  of 
them  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin  would  have  so 
fixed  them  in  the  minds  of  those  who  saw  'them  that 
there  would  have  been  no  discrepancy  in  the  accounts. 
We  find,  however,  that  Mark  says  the  inscription  was 
"The  King  of  the  Jews."  Luke  says  it  read,  "This  is  the 
King  of  the  Jews."  Matthew  records  it,  "This  is  Jesus 
the  King  of  the  Jews."  And  John  gives  it,  "Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  the  King  of  the  Jews."  The  general  idea 
in  all  is  the  same,  but  the  wording  is  different  in  each 
of  the  four  records.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  inscription 
contained  certain  words  and  no  others;  and  three  of  the 
four  cannot  be  exact  reports.  If  Mark  is  right,  then 
the  other  three  have  not  remembered  it  correctly.  These 
variations  cited  do  not  affect  the  true  value  and  author- 
ity of  the  Bible  at  all,  but  they  do  indicate  that  the 
claim  of  infallibility  is  not  founded  upon  facts.  Indeed, 
"the  Scriptures  never  claim  absolute  accuracy  for  all 
their  statements  or  in  any  way  ask  us  to  expect  it  from 
them:  and  careful  reading  is  sufficient  to  show  that  ac- 
curacy has  not  been  attempted.  There  are  frequent 
divergences  between  parallel  naratives,  as  in  Kings  and 
Chronicles  and  in  the  four  Gospels."1  The  assump- 
tion that  inspired  men  were  lifted  to  the  point  where 
their  very  words  were  chosen  for  them  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  stands  disproved  in  these  plain  divergences,  which 
i  Clark,  "Outline  of  Christian  Theology,"  p.  35. 


100  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

could  not  have  occurred  had  the  Holy  Ghost  dictated 
all  the  utterances. 

But,  yielding  a  little,  it  is  sometimes  said  that  if  the 
words  were  not  dictated  and  if  slips  of  memory  did  oc- 
casionally creep  in,  sitill  the  message  itself  represented 
always  and  infallibly  the  mind  of  (rod.  But  the  facts 
do  not  bear  out  this  assumption.  An  inspired  man  is 
not  always  one  and  the  same  thing,  any  more  than  an 
educated  man  is  always  a  man  of  just  such  a  degree 
of  wisdom.  Inspiration  results  from  the  in-breathing 
of  the  Spirit  of  God.  and  this  varies  according  to  the  re- 
ceptivity of  the  man.  The  original  apostles  were  surely  in- 
spired men,  but  "it  is  certain  that  the  inspiration  vouch- 
safed them  did  not  make  them  infallible  in  their  ordi- 
nary teaching  or  in  their  administration  of  the  Church. 
They  made  mistakes  of  a  very  serious  nature.  It  is 
beyond  question  that  a  majority  of  the  apostles  took 
at  the  beginning  an  erroneous  view  of  the  relation  of  the 
Gentiles  to  the  Christian  Church.  They  insisted  that 
Gentiles  must  first  become  Jews  before  they  could  be- 
come Christians:  that  the  only  way  into  the  Christian 
Church  was  through  the  synagogue  and  the  temple.  It 
was  a  grievous  and  radical  error;  it  struck  at  the  founda- 
tions of  Christian  faith.  And  this  error  was  entertained 
by  these  inspired  apostles  after  the  day  of  Pentecost: 
it  influenced  their  teaching:  it  led  them  to  proclaim  a 
defective  Gospel.  This  is  not  the  assertion  of  a  sceptic, 
it  is  the  clear  testimony  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  as  we 
•find  on  reading  the  second  chapter  of  his  letter  to  the 
Galatians."1 

This  Spirit-filled  state  may  also  result  in  varying  ut- 
terances, according  to  the  degree  of  the  man's  original 

l  Washington  Gladden,  "Who  Wrote  the  Bible,"  p.  210. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  101 

moral  development.  The  inspired  men  did  not  regard 
themselves  as  lifted  to  that  point  where  their  sayings 
were  all  on  the  same  level  of  authority  nor  as  possess- 
ing in  all  points  the  quality  of  infallibility.  For  ex- 
ample, there  is  a  long  distance  to  be  traversed  between 
the  Psalmist  who  said  of  his  enemy,  "Happy  shall  he  be 
that  taketh  and  dasheth  thy  little  ones  against  the 
stones,"  and  the  Saviour  who  prayed  for  His  enemies, 
"Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  St.  Paul,  the  strongest  personality,  probably  the 
most  scholarly  man  among  all  Scripture  writers,  and 
one  who  wrote  a  third  of  the  entire  New  Testament, 
said  modestly,  "we  know  in  part;  we  prophesy  in  part; 
we  see  through  a  glass  darkly."  He  admitted  that  some 
of  that  which  he  called  knowledge  would  "vanish  away" 
in  the  presence  of  other  clearer  knowledge  when  he 
should  "see  face  to  face." 

When  we  come  to  examine  what  certain  Bible  writers 
actually  said,  we  find  this  view  of  the  incompleteness 
of  knowledge  borne  out  by  the  record.  Jesus  Himself 
set  the  example  for  reverent  scrutiny  of  the  sayings 
of  them  of  old  time.  Moses,  for  instance,  had  given 
the  Israelites  a  certain  law  of  divorce.  If  a  man  mar- 
ried a  wife  and  she  found  no  favor  in  his  eyes,  he 
could  give  her  a  writing  of  divorce  and  send  her  away 
and  marry  another.  But  Jesus  told  them  frankly  that 
this  was  wrong.  "Moses  gave  you  that  law  on  account 
of  the  hardness  of  your  hearts" — on  account  of  the  low 
state  of  morality  at  that  time.  It  was  an  advance  on 
the  polygamy  and  the  irregular  unions  with  which  the 
Israelites  had  been  familiar,  but  it  was  not  the  mind  of 
God  touching  marriage.  Then  Jesus  gave  His  law, 


102  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

which  does  not  allow  divorce  except  for  one  cause,  the 
violation  of  the  seventh  commandment.  Jesus  quoted 
again  from  the  Old  Testament,  "Ye  have  heard  that  it 
hath  been  said  by  them  of  old  time,  'an  eye  for  an  eye 
and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth/  but  I  say  unto  you  this  is  wrong; 
this  is  not  the  mind  of  God."  And  in  place  of  this 
old  grim  law  of  retaliation,  he  gave  them  His  command- 
ment about  overcoming  evil  with  good.  And  again, 
"Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by  them  of  old 
time,  Thou  shalt  love  they  neighbor  and  hade  thine 
enemy;  but  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies;  do  good 
to  them  that  hate  you  and  pray  for  them  which  despite- 
fully  use  you,  that  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven."  All  these  old  Testament 
teachings  he  set  aside  as  not  portraying  the  mind  of 
God  and  consequently  as  not  being  the  product  of  infal- 
lible inspiration. 

And  we  are  carrying  on  the  very  same  process.  We 
compare  certain  teachings  found  in  both  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments  with  the  mind  of  Christ  and  we  do 
not  hesitate  to  discount  what  does  not  seem  to  accord 
with  His  words.  Eefer  to  the  one  hundred  and  ninth 
Psalm,  where  the  author  prays  that  his  enemy  may  die 
and  "his  children  be  fatherless  and  his  wife  a  widow: 
that  his  children  may  be  continually  vagabonds  and 
beg:  that  they  may  seek  their  bread  in  desolate  places; 
that  none  may  extend  mercy  to  him  or  favor  to  his 
fatherless  children;  that  his  prayer  may  be  counted  as 
sin  and  the  sin  of  his  mother  may  not  be  blotted  out." 
None  of  you  would  dare  to  kneel  down  before  God  and 
pray  in  that  fashion  about  your  worst  enemy  or  touch- 
ing the  wickedest  man  alive.  The  prayer  of  the  man 


TEE  AUTHORITY   OF   THE  BIBLE.  103 

who  wrote  that  psalm  rloes  not  agree  with  the  mind  of 
Christ  and  so  you  quietly  set  it  aside. 

Turn  to  the  third  chapter  of  Ecclesiastes  and  hear 
the  pessimist  uttering  his  wail  of  despair:  "For  that 
which  befalleth  the  sons  of  men  befalleth  beasts;  even 
one  thing  befalleth  them;  as  the  one  dieth  so  the  other 
dieth;  yea,  they  have  all  one  breath,  so  that  a  man  hath 
no  pre-eminence  above  a  beast;  all  are  of  dust  and  all 
turn  to  dust  again."  Also,  in  the  ninth  chapter,  "The 
living  know  that  they  shall  die,  but  the  dead  know 
not  anything,  neither  have  they  any  more  a  reward. 
.  .  .  For  there  is  no  work  nor  device  nor  knowledge 
nor  wisdom  in  the  grave  whither  thou  goest."  Here  is 
as  flat  a  denial  of  the  claim  that  God  has  made  us  "a 
little  lower  than  the  angels"  and  that  if  we  believe  in 
Him,  "we  shall  never  die,"  as  might  be  found  in  some 
infidel  book.  "We  know,  however,  that  this  was  the 
writing  of  a  sceptical,  pessimistic,  unbelieving  man,  and 
as  it  does  not  accord  with  the  promises  of  Jesus,  we 
quietly  set  it  aside  as  not  being  an  authoritative  state- 
ment as  to  what  man  is  or  what  his  destiny  shall  be. 

Turn  to  Paul's  treatment  of  marriage  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  first  Corinthians.  He  plainly  states  that  in 
his  judgment  it  is  better  for  a  man  to  remain  single, 
and  that  it  is  better  for  a  father  not  to  allow  his-  daugh- 
ter to  marry.  He  almost  coarsely  suggests  that  mar- 
riage at  best  is  a  kind  of  concession  to  human  weak- 
ness— "if  they  cannot  contain  let  them  marry,  for  it  is 
better  to  marry  than  to  burn."  He  urges  as  his  reason 
for  this  counsel  that  domestic  life  interferes  with  serving 
God.  "He  that  is  unmarried  careth  for  the  things  that 
belong  to  the  Lord,  how  he  may  please  the  Lord;  but 


104  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

he  that  is  married  careth  for  the  things  of  the  world, 
how  he  may  please  his  wife."  Now  you  do  not  accept 
that  as  authoritative  teaching!  Most  of  you  are  married: 
you  are  glad  to  see  your  children  happily  and  wisely 
m'arried.  You  believe  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  men  and 
women  serve  God  all  the  better  for  entering  into  hon- 
orable married  relations,  and  that  they  glorify  Him  by 
establishing  homes  and  becoming  fathers  and  mothers  of 
believing  families.  Paul's  hard  words  about  marriage 
are  not  only  in  disagreement  with  sacred  and  elemental 
human  instincts  implanted  by  the  Creator  for  holy  ends, 
they  are  also  out  of  line  with  the  mind  of  Christ.  Jesus 
indicated  his  purpose  and  wish  for  men  when  he  said, 
"For  this  cause  a  man  shall  leave  his  father  and  mother 
and  cleave  unto  his  wife,  and  they  twain  shall  be  one 
flesh."  What  therefore  God  in  his  purpose  and  command 
hath  joined  together  let  not  man,  St.  Paul  or  any  other 
man,  in  the  supposed  interests  of  the  superior  unworld- 
liness  of  celibacy,  seek  to  put  asunder.  I  have  cited 
these  plain  cases  to  show  how,  in  forming  a  practical 
code  for  our  governance  from  the  Scriptures,  the  mind 
of  Christ  is  the  final  standard.  We  do  not  hesitate  to 
disregard  certain  positive  utterances  of  tihose  men  who 
wrote  Scripture  when  they  seem  to  disagree  with  the 
mind  of  Christ.  Thus  by  our  practical  attitude  we  re- 
fuse to  believe  that  infallibility  belongs  to  every  portion 
of  the  Scriptures. 

This  view  would  also  have  to  reckon  with  these  plain 
facts.  Suppose  the  writers  of  tfhe  original  Hebrew  and 
Greek  documents  were  infallibly  inspired — they  never 
claim  to  have  been,  but  suppose  according  to  the  theory 
that  they  were.  In  that  case  the  original  Hebrew  and 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  105 

Greek  manuscripts  would  have  contained  the  veritable 
words  of  God.  But  we  have  none  of  these.  We  have 
copies,  and  the  various  copies  on  hand  do  not  always 
agree.  The  conservative  scholars  tell  us  that  in  all, 
over  one  hundred  thousand  variations  occur  in  the  oldest 
and  best  manuscripts  we  have.  And  these  differences 
are  not  always  trifling.  The  first  eleven  verses  of  the 
eighth  chapter  of  John,  and  the  last  twelve  verses  of  the 
sixteenth  chapter  of  Mark  are  entirely  omitted  from  the 
best  manuscripts.  We  are  forced  to  ask  which  one  of 
these  many  copies  is  the  infallible  one  or  which  among 
the  many  variations  in  the  copies  are  to  be  received  as 
the  exact  words  of  the  Spirit.  No  sure  reply  could  be 
made. 

Furthermore,  the  common  people  do  not  read  even 
these  copies  in  the  original — they  read  translations.  The 
translators  never  claimed  to  be  infallibly  inspired  in 
rendering  Hebrew  and  Greek  into  English.  They  used 
their  best  scholarship,  but  wise  and  good  men  often 
differed  as  to  the  exact  meaning  of  certain  phrases,  as  we 
saw  when  the  Revised  Version  was  made:  and  questions 
had  to  be  determined  sometimes  by  majority  vote. 
Among  the  varying  opinions  as  to  what  should  be  the 
English  equivalent  in  a  translation,  which  one  should 
we  select  now  as  the  infallible  rendering?  It  would  re- 
quire the  gift  of  infallible  inspiration  to  decide,  and 
this  is  something  that  none  of  us  possess.  And  beyond 
that,  we  should  need  infallible  interpreters,  inasmuch 
as  the  meaning  of  the  English  passage  must  be  brought 
out  before  we  can  deal  with  it  practically.  We  should 
here  again  be  left  without  infallibility,  as  no  special 
school  of  interpreters  has  ever  claimed  to  have  the  gift 


106  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

of  infallibility  as  against  all  the  rest.  This  claim  of 
infallibility  was  never  made  for  the  Scriptures  until  the 
fourth  century,  and  it  has  been  disputed  through  all  the 
history  of  the  Church.  Martin  Luther,  who  gave  direc- 
tion to  our  Protestant  branch  of  the  Church,  did  not 
hold  to  it.  It  will  not  bear  close  scrutiny.  The  making 
of  such  a  claim  leads  either  to  evasion  of  the  facts  or 
to  playing  fast  and  loose  with  the  simple  truth.  It 
has  induced  unbelief  much  more  than  it  has  stimulated 
faith. 

We  consider  then  the  second  view,  that  the  Bible  is  no 
more  an  inspired  book  than  are  Shakespeare's  plays  or 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost  or  any  other  work  of  genius. 
Ordinary  men  could  not  produce  these  works;  the 
authors  had  the  inspiration  of  genius  and  in  a  similar 
way  so  had  the  Bible  writers.  This  is  a  bald  statement 
of  the  rationalistic  position. 

History  is  against  it.  The  highest  and  best  forms 
of  human  experience  to-day  testify  against  it.  Study 
the  effect  of  this  collection  of  writings  on  the  human 
heart!  Let  them  be  translated  into  any  language  or 
dialect  and  as  rude  men  begin  to  read  and  study  these 
pages,  their  lives  are  changed!  The  inspiration  that 
went  into  the  production  of  this  book  can  be  seen  in 
the  way  it  inspires  new  conduct  in  all  students  of  it 
yet.  You  have  verified  this  at  first  hand  for  yourselves. 
You  have  been  discouraged,  ugly,  cross,  or  you  have 
been  cold  and  hard:  you  have  read  for  half  an  hour 
in  the  Gospel  of  Luke  or  John,  in  the  Psalms,  in  the, 
fifty-third  of  Isaiah  or  in  the  thirteenth  of  first  Corin- 
thians, and  as  a  result,  you  found  something  there  that 
is  not  in  other  books.  It  brought  you  a  message  from 


THE  AUTHORITY   OF   THE   BIBLE.  107 

the  Eternal  that  changed  and  renewed  your  heart.  We 
do  not  need  to  split  hairs  or  even  to  bring  in  the  texts 
which  make  against  such  a  leveling  down  of  this  col- 
lection of  writings — the  broad  experience  of  men  and 
women  who  have  turned  to  these  pages  would  lift  them 
by  well  nigh  universal  consent  out  of  the  category  of 
ordinary  works  of  human  genius.  The  human  heart 
by  inner  and  indisputable  experience  has  found  in  these 
writings  the  presence  and  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of 
God. 

I  pass  tftien  at  once  to  the  third  view.  According  to 
this,  the  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  progressive  revela- 
tion which  God  has  made  of  Himself  through  the  reli- 
gious experiences  of  a  chosen  people.  It  is  the  "record'* 
of  a  process  conducted  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  the 
record  is  made  up  of  history,  biography,  poetry,  drama, 
song,  sermons,  letters  and  other  forms  of  literature,  be- 
cause they  all  throw  light  on  the  spiritual  experiences 
of  the  chosen  people.  As  we  read,  we  actually  come 
upon  them  while  they  are  seeking,  praying,  weeping, 
confessing  their  sins,  preaching,  discussing  their  prob- 
lems, acting  and  then  noting  the  moral  result. 

It  deals  with  a  "progressive  revelation,"  for  God  spoke 
as  men  were  able  to  hear.  He  revealed  Himself  more 
fully  as  they  made  moral  advance.  Revelation  was  an 
educational  process,  and  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
had  to  be  progressive.  We  are  not  surprised  to  find 
then  that  Moses  did  not  have  the  moral  insight  of  St. 
John,  nor  that  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes  failed  to  see 
the  truth  of  immortality  as  Paul  saw  it  when  he  wrote 
first  Corinthians.  The  author  of  the  one  hundred  and 
ninth  psalm,  praying  his  bitter  prayer  and  calling  down 


108  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

misfortunes  on  the  widow  and  orphans,  had  not  ad- 
vanced to  where  James  was  when  he  defined  "pure  and 
undefiled  religion"  as  visiting  the  fatherless  and  the 
widow  in  their  affliction  and  keeping  one's  self  un- 
spotted from  the  world.  There  is  progress  here  be- 
cause the  Bible  was  given  not  by  having  its  words  me- 
chanically dropped  out  of  heaven,  as  if  by  dictation,  but 
by  being  wrought  into  the  moral  experiences  of  men 
by  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  Old  Testament  especially 
"gives  evidence  of  a  gradual  discovery  of  God  on  the 
part  of  men,  which  is  accounted  for  in  the  record  and 
can  be  best  explained  in  fact  by  a  deliberate  and  gra- 
cious self-revealing  on  the  part  of  God." 

The  revelation  was  not  made  by  dictation,  but 
through  a  long  and  varied  course  of  "religious  experi- 
ence." It  has  always  been  true  and  evidently  will  re- 
main true  that  "not  in  writing,  but  in  living  history, 
in  actual  life  God  shows  Himself  to  men."  By  what  He 
did  for  those  who  trusted  and  obeyed  Him,  what  He 
was  became  known. 

It  was  accomplished  through  a  "chosen  people." 
However  it  came  about,  the  Hebrews  were  by  original 
constitution  strong  on  the  religious  side,  as  tihe  Greeks 
were  strong  in  philosophy  and  art,  the  Romans  in  law 
and  government,  and  the  English  in  commerce  and  ad- 
ministration. God  chose  them  to  make  their  definite 
and  characteristic  contribution  to  the  total  life  of  the 
world  through  their  religion.  He  increased  their  origi- 
nal five  talents  by  providential  experiences^  by  the  work 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  their  leaders,  and  by  that 
gracious  unveiling  of  Himself  to  their  aspiring  gaze, 
which  culminated  at  last  in  His  sending  His  son  to  be 
born  as  a  Hebrew. 


TEE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  109 

This  definition,  not  by  any  means  original  with  me, 
but  gathered  and  summarized  from  the  investigations 
and  conclusions  of  many  devout  Bible  scholars,  seems 
to  cover  the  ground.  Our  Bible  is  a  record  of  the  pro- 
gressive revelation  which  God  has  made  of  Himself 
through  the  religious  experiences  of  a  c'hosen  people. 
This  does  not  assume  infallibility  on  the  one  hand — 
there  may  have  been  slips  of  memory,  errors  in  copy- 
ing, incompleteness  of  view  among  the  earlier  men,  lim- 
itations indicating  their  failure  to  apprehend  the  mind 
of  Christ  as  it  stands  at  last  revealed  in  the  Gospels. 
"The  free  and  natural  method  of  the  Bible  has  opened 
actual  experience  to  our  sight  and  gives  us  the  divine 
realities  in  human  life  in  all  their  freshness  and  power, 
and  this  quality  of  livingness  is  worth  more  to  us  than 
what  we  call  inerrancy  would  be."  But  on  the  other 
hand,  this  definition  of  the  Bible  does  assert  that 
the  Scriptures  contain  a  revelation  from  God  which  the 
rationalistic  view  does  not  affirm.  It  asserts  for  the 
Bible  substantial  authority  in  that  any  man  may  find 
there  such  light  and  guidance  as  will  enable  him  to  in- 
telligently stand  before  God  and  worship,  as  will  put 
him  in  the  way  of  receiving  His  unutterable  help,  and  as 
will  enable  him  to  shape  his  conduct  in  glad  conformity 
with  the  will  of  God  therein  revealed. 

A  man  who  holds  this  view  of  the  Bible  reads  his  way 
through  all  trifling  mistakes  and  variations;  through  all 
the  imperfections  of  moral  insight  that  stand  on  a 
lower  level  than  the  mind  of  Christ;  he  listens  to  all  the 
objections  carping  infidelity  may  bring,  and  through  it 
all  he  is  undisturbed.  He  judges  the  Bible,  not  by  sin- 
gle separate  statements,  as  the  claim  of  entire  infalli- 


110  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

bility  would  compel  us  to  do:  he  judges  it  by  its  trend 
and  drift,  by  its  combined  message  to  man  and  by  its 
total  conclusion.  He  is  willing  to  stand  by  that.  If  any 
one  can  show  him  that  the  moral  conclusion  to  which 
the  Bible  comes,  and  that  the  teaching  at  its  summit 
in  the  life  and  words  of  Jesus  are  not  in  agreement  with 
the  moral  facts  and  needs  of  men,  he  will  give  up  his 
Bible.  But  this  is  something  that  no  one  can  do. 

This  view  also  provides  for  progress  in  revelation  and 
rejoices  in  studying  the  gradualness  with  which  men, 
have  come  to  understand  the  mind  of  God,  until  at  last 
they  saw  it  clearly  revealed  in  the  words  of  Christ.  It 
tests  all  things  by  the  mind  of  Christ.  Interpreting  all 
things  by  this  standard,  it  thus  distinguishes  in  the 
ruder  ages  of  Old  Testament  times  between  what  was 
the  actual  mind  of  God  and  what  was  the  imperfection 
of  moral  insight  in  the  men  who  wrote.  The  immorali- 
ties of  Samson:  the  cruel  treachery  and  lying  of  Jael, 
which  are  frankly  praised;  the  scepticism  of  the  author 
of  Ecclesiastes:  and  the  immoral,  or  at  least  un-moral, 
atmosphere  of  the  book  of  Esther,  are  all  acknowledged 
as  being  the  utterance  of  earnest  men.  speaking  the  best 
they  knew,  but  not  embodying  the  pure  thought  of  the 
Father.  "These  writings,  when  they  were  composed, 
were  at  the  front  of  the  religious  life  of  their  time  and 
led  it  forward,"  but  they  are  to  be  judged  to-day  in  the 
fuller  light  that  has  come  to  us  by  our  knowledge  of  the 
mind  of  Christ. 

This  view  finds  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  therefore, 
not  in  some  theory  erected  about  it  from  without,  but 
in  the  actual  verities  it  contains.  Its  authority  rests 
upon  "its  ability  to  hold  before  the  minds  and  hearts  of 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  HI 

men  a  picture  of  God,  of  man,  and  of  their  mutual  re- 
lations, which  our  reason,  our  conscience,  and  our  affec- 
tions approve  as  true."  By  its  authority,  we  mean  "the 
right  which  the  highest  moral  and  religious  truth  has  to 
satisfy  the  reason  and  to  bind  the  conscience  of  man."1 
Any  book  that  can  do  that  has  authority.  The  Bible 
can  do  this,  and  possesses  its  authority  therefore  by  vir- 
tue of  what  it  can  do  for  the  moral  life  of  men. 

The  solemn  contention  that  "we  must  accept  it  all  or 
reject  it  all"  is  both  foolish  and  wicked.  "We  have  been 
seriously  told  that  if  men  were  led  to  doubt  a  single 
statement  in  it  they  could  not  depend  on  any  of  it.  A 
simple  illustration  would  show  the  folly  of  such  an  as 
sumption.  For  twenty-three  years  a  certain  man  taught 
the  truths  of  religion  from  this  pulpit.  Many  of  you 
came  and  listened  to  him;  yen  brought  your  childern 
and  urged  them  to  listen  attentively  to  what  he  said. 
Was  this  man  infallible?  Oh,  no;  he  would  have  been 
the  first  to  repudiate  sruch  a  claim.  He  would  not  have 
called  himself  an  inspired  man,  though  I  certainly  be- 
lieve the  Holy  Spirit  helped  him  to  preach  his  sermons 
and  live  his  life,  or  he  never  would  have  been  able  to 
accomplish  the  splendid  work  he  did.  But  suppose 
some  morning,  in  attempting  to  quote,  as  he  said,  from 
Zechariah,  he  had  given  you  a  verse  of  Jeremiah;  or  in 
giving  statistics  he  had  named  twenty-three  thousand 
as  the  number  of  men  slain  upon  a  certain  occasion, 
when  really  twenty-four  thousand  were  killed;  or  in 
citing  an  event  of  history  as  occurring  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  John  Adams,  he  had  mistaken  that  for  the 
administration  of  Jefferson.  Or  suppose  his  scientific 
statements  or  references  had  been  invalidated  and  dis- 

1  Ladd,  "What  is  the  Bible?"  p.  459. 


112  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

proved  by  later  discoveries.  You  would  not  have  gone 
to  your  children  saying,  "If  this  teacher  has  ever  made 
•a  slip  in  memory,  or  has  not  been  perfect  in  his  scientific 
knowledge,  we  cannot  go  and  hear  him;  his  moral  and 
spiritual  value  is  destroyed.  We  must  accept  all  or  reject 
all."  The  foolishness  of  such  a  proceeding  would  be  in- 
stantly apparent.  Doctor  McLean's  teaching  during 
all  those  years  was,  of  course,  taken  from  the  Bible; 
but  it  was  his  interpretation  and  understanding  of  the 
Bible,  arrived  at  in  the  light  of  his  own  study,  and  the 
results  of  the  best  scholarship  he  could  command.  He 
was  neither  infallible  as  a  student,  nor  as  an  interpreter, 
yet  \ve  feel  entirely  confident  that  if  all  who  came  into 
this  church  during  those  twenty-three  years  had  gone 
out  to  put  in  practice  the  message  he  gave  them  they 
would  have  been  led  safely  and  certainly  in  the  way  of 
righteousness.  There  can  be  worth,  truth,  and  author- 
ity, great,  splendid  and  useful,  without  infallibility. 
The  Catholics  feel  that  unless  the  Ohureh  is  infallible 
she  cannot  teach  the  people.  Some  Protestants  feel 
likewise  that  unless  the  Bible  is  infallible  it  cannot  teach 
the  people.  Both  are  wrong — God  alone  is  infallible, 
and  neither  the  Church  nor  the  Bible  is  God.  But  both 
Church  and  Bible  can  teach  with  authority  and  helpful- 
ness, if  the  sum  total  of  the  moral  conclusions  which 
have  been  reached  through  this  revelation  made  by  God 
through  the  religious  experiences  of  a  chosen  people 
are  valid  as  tested  by  human  experience. 

We  are  told  that  it  is  dangerous  to  allow  men  to  read 
the  Scriptures  and  make  discriminations,  deciding  that 
this  passage  is  the  absolute  truth  of  God  and  the  other 
is  due  to  the  human  limitations  of  the  writers.  But 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  113 

men  have  never  been  relieved  from  the  peril  of  making 
just  such  decisions.  Other  men,  of  like  passions  with 
us  and  enjoying  only  such  guidance  as  is  open  now  to 
devout  men,  intent  on  doing  His  will,  have  been  making 
similarly  vital  decisions.  Men  had  to  choose  what 
books  should  go  into  the  collection  and  what  ones  should 
be  left  out.  Fine  questions  arose.  The  "Epistle  of 
Barnabas"  was  regarded  by  Clement  of  Alexandria  and 
by  Origen  as  being  inspired  scripture.  Barnabas  is 
named  with  Paul  in  the  book  of  Acts  as  an  apostle,  and 
is  described  as  "a  good  man  and  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  The  oldest  manuscript  we  have  of  the  Bible, 
the  Sinaiticus,  found  by  Tischendorf,  in  1859,  in  the 
convent  near  Mt.  Sinai,  contains  this  epistle  of  Barna- 
bas. But  even  in  the  face  of  such  claims  men  decided, 
upon  what  seemed  to  them  good  and  sufficient  grounds, 
to  leave  it  out  of  the  canonical  scriptures.  Other  books 
which  to  some  minds  have  less  claim  to  inspiration,  were 
allowed  to  stand  within  the  canon. 

Other  men,  in  giving  us  an  edition  of  the  Scriptures, 
have  had  to  decide,  from  the  varying  copies,  which  read- 
ing should  be  accepted.  Other  men  have  had  to  weigh, 
opposing  considerations  in  making  translations.  Wise 
and  good  men  have  differed  and  certain  decisions  have 
been  by  the  weight  of  a  majority  vote.  It  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  the  purpose  of  God  to  relieve  men 
from  the  responsibility  and  the  peril  of  deciding  vital 
questions  of  faith.  Young  people  and  older  people 
should  be  given  sound,  wholesome  principles  of  judg- 
ment, and  then  bidden  to  do  their  Protestant  duty  of 
reading  their  Bibles  for  themselves.  There  is  no  place 
where  men  are  relieved  from  the  responsibilty  of  such. 
The  Main  Points.— 8 


114  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

decisions  except  in  the  Komish  Church,  and  even  there 
at  the  outset  every  man  must  make  for  himself  the  mo- 
mentous decision,  that  the  Pope  is  infallible,  and  that 
he  is  therefore  warranted  in  committing  all  questions  of 
faith  and  morals  to  the  papal  judgment.  Making  dis- 
criminations in  a  book  of  scripture  no  longer  regarded 
as  infallible  in  every  point,  but  as  being  the  record  of  a 
progressive  unfolding  revelation  of  divine  truth,  may  be 
risky,  but  life  must  be  lived  in  the  midst  of  such 
perils.  Every  man  must  decide  many  points  for  him- 
self, with  the  best  light  obtainable,  and  at  his  own  risk. 
There  is  no  way  of  making  life  a  personally  conducted 
tour,  where  one  may  resign  his  individual  responsibility 
to  church  or  priest,  to  creed  or  book,  and  thus  relieve 
himself  of  the  task  of  making  decisions. 

The  Bible  finds  the  great  vindication  of  its  authority 
in  human  experience.  Men  hold  fast  to  it  because  of 
what  it  has  wrought  in  the  realm  of  Christian  life. 
An  illustration  used  by  James  Freeman  Clarke  puts 
it  clearly:  "You  go  to  the  Mammoth  Cave  in  Ken- 
tucky. You  take  a  guide,  perhaps  Stephen,  an  ignor- 
ant colored  man,  formerly  a  slave.  You  know  nothing 
of  him  but  this,  that  he  has  guided  hundreds  of  travel- 
ers before  you,  and  has  guided  them  safely.  You  enter 
the  mysterious  passages.  You  pass  from  one  chamber 
to  another.  Passages  diverge  in  all  directions;  still  you 
follow  through  the  great  darkness  the  feeble  lamp  of 
your  guide.  You  descend  precipices,  you  climb  ladders, 
you  come  to  a  river,  and  cross  it  in  a  boat  beneath  an 
overhanging  roof  of  rock.  You  go  on,  mile  after  mile, 
until  you  seem  to  have  left  forever  the  day  and  upper 
air.  Immense  darkness,  perpetual  night,  undisturbed 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.  115 

silence  broods  around.  You  are  many  miles  from  the 
entrance;  if  your  guide  has  made  any  mistake,  you  are 
lost.  But  you  follow  him  with  entire  confidence. 
Why?  Do  you  believe  him  to  be  plenarily  inspired? 
Do  you  think  him  infallible?  Not  at  all.  But  you 
trust  in  his  long  experience.  He  has  guided  travelers 
safely  for  years  and  that  is  enough.  So  the  Bible  has 
guided  the  footsteps  of  travelers  seeking  truth  and  God. 
It  has  brought  generation  after  generation  out  of  dark- 
ness into  light.  It  points  out  on  either  side  the  false 
paths  which  would  lead  you  to  death.  It  speaks  with 
an  authority  far  higher  than  that  of  theological  infalli- 
bility. It  is  full  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is  the  spirit 
of  truth,  and  its  power  is  not  dependent  on  the  theories 
of  inspiration  which  man  may  devise,  but  on  its  own 
immortal  life,  its  sublime  elevation,  its  power  of  bring- 
ing the  soul  to  God  and  to  peace."1 

The  Bible  guides  men  into  a  knowledge  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  into  the  power  of  the  redemption 
of  Jesus  Christ,  into  the  conscious  communion  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  leads  them  into  the  experience  of  the 
forgiveness  of  their  sins,  into  moral  renewal  by  divine 
grace,  into  all  the  help  that  comes  through  prayer,  trust, 
and  obedience.  It  profitably  equips  and  furnishes  men 
for  every  form  of  good  life  and  work.  It  never  fails  to 
guide  men  who  seek  light  for  Christian  living.  These 
are  matters  of  present  and  personal  experience.  And 
touching  its  utterances  about  the  Trinity,  immortality,  a 
future  judgment,  and  other  matters  which  lie  beyond 
the  range  of  human  experience,  I  have  this  to  say:  If  I 
have  known  a  man  for  forty  years,  and  he  has  told  me 

i  James  Freeman  Clarke,  "Common  Sense  in  Religion," 
p.  98. 


116  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

s 

the  truth  touching  matters  where  I  could  verify  his 
statement  in  nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  instances,  when  he  makes  the  ten  thou- 
sandth statement  touching  some  matter  where  I  cannot 
at  once  submit  his  words  to  verification,  I  accept  his 
word  and  rest  confidently  upon  my  faith  in  his  already 
ascertained  integrity.  The  Bible  has  established  itself 
in  human  confidence  by  its  faithful  guidance,  which  has 
brought  men  into  moral  peace  and  spiritual  renewal; 
and  as  rational  beings  we  trust  it  even  when  it  speaks  of 
matters  that  lie  at  present  beyond  our  reach. 

It  is  more  exact  to  say  that  the  Bible  contains  the 
word  of  God  than  to  claim  that  every  word  and  syllable 
is  the  word  of  God.  Here  is  a  veritable  message  from 
God  to  men  and  its  fruits  are  seen  in  the  changed  lives 
of  those  who  receive  its  heaven-sent  good  news!  The 
Bible  accomplishes  its  supreme  work  when  it  conducts 
us  into  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  then  begin 
to  trust  for  present  and  eternal  salvation,  not  in  the 
Bible,  but  in  the  mercy  of  God,  made  effective  to  us 
through  the  redemption  of  Jesus  Christ,  into  whose 
presence  and  fellowship  this  sure  word  of  the  Spirit  has 
brought  us. 


VII. 
THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PEAYEE. 

The  moment  we  believe  in  God  it  raises  a  strong  pre- 
sumption in  favor  of  prayer.  If  He  is  omnipotent,  He 
can  hear.  If  He  is  a  moral  being,  He  will  want  to  hear 
the  voices  of  His  children  speaking  not  alone  to  one  an- 
other, but  also  to  Him.  If  He  is  omnipotent  and  good, 
He  can  and  will  make  reply.  This  is  the  line  of  argu- 
ment suggested  in  the  old  psalm:  "He  that  planted 
the  ear,  shall  He  not  hear,  and  He  that  formed  the  eye, 
shall  He  not  see?"  The  man  who  believes  that  God  is, 
by  that  very  faith  affirms  his  further  confidence  that 
"He  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  Him/' 

Prayer  reduced  to  its  simplest  terms  is  the  natural, 
affectionate  intercourse  between  a  Father  and  His  chil- 
dren. Where  the  Father  is  All-powerful,  All-wise  and 
Good,  you  can  see  that  such  intercourse  would  be  of 
unspeakable  advantage  to  the  children  and  that  it  would 
bring  joy  to  the  heart  of  the  Father.  This  is  the  way 
we  are  taught  to  think  of  prayer  in  the  Scriptures.  The 
Gospels  assert  that  "these  two  mysterious  beings,  man 
and  God,  have  such  a  kinship  between  them  that  their 
relationship  to  each  other  can  in  no  other  way  be  so 
well  named  as  by  the  terms  'father'  and  'child.'  This 
conception  makes  room  for  that  infinite  distance  be- 
tween God  and  man  which  so  profoundly  impresses  all 
(117) 


118  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

whose  minds  dwell  upon  the  subject.  Between  the  man 
of  power,  knowledge  and  wide  range  of  interest,  and 
the  infant  whose  face  is  breaking  into  its  first  intelligent 
smile,  the  distance  is  well  nigh  immeasurable,  though 
it  in  no  way  destroys  the  genuineness  of  the  kinship 
between  them.  Toward  the  Infinite  Father  our  path 
is  to  be  trodden  in  the  same  way  the  child  treads  the 
path  toward  equality  with  the  human  parent"1 

Therefore  the  illustration  of  what  prayer  is  cannot 
be  found  in  the  acts  of  criminals  entreating  a  judge 
for  mercy,  or  of  courtiers  beseeching  their  king  for 
favors,  or  of  adepts  seeking  to  manipulate  certain  mys- 
terious forces  in  the  world  for  their  personal  ends.  It 
must  be  found  in  the  form  and  spirit  of  family  life. 
"When  ye  pray,  say,  Our  Father."  Prayer  is  the  act  of 
a  child  entering  into  companionship  with  his  Father. 
This  shows  how  natural  and  rational  prayer  is:  it  also 
indicates  how  morbid  is  the  man  who  never  speaks  to 
his  Father!  That  was  what  Jesus  always  said.  If  you 
with  all  your  imperfections  love  to  have  your  children 
come  to  you,  if  on  the  whole  they  are  benefited  by  com- 
ing, if  you  give  them  bread  and  fish,  instruction  and 
help,  affection  and  companionship  because  they  come, 
how  much  more  will  your  Heavenly  Father  give  good 
things  to  them  that  ask  Him! 

A  further  presumption  in  favor  of  prayer  is  raised  by 
the  definite  promises  of  Scripture.  No  other  book 
speaks  of  the  moral  needs  and  privileges  of  men  with 
such  accuracy  and  authority  as  does  the  Bible.  You 
remember  its  clear,  confident  words  about  prayer.  It 
does  not  seem  to  be  feeling  its  way.  It  rather  walks 
with  firm  tread  as  in  the  light  of  ascertained  facts. 

1  John  P.  Coyle,  "The  Imperial  Christ,"  p.  74. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRATER.  119 

"Ask  and  you  shall  receive."  "Seek  and  you  shall 
find."  'Tut  out  your  hand  and  knock,  if  you  desire 
to  advance  where  the  way  seems  closed,  and  it  shall  be 
opened  to  you."  "Men  ought  always  to  pray."  And 
these  words  are  followed  hy  two  familiar  illustrations  of 
what  perseverance  in  asking  accomplished,  even  in  the 
face  of  unfavorable  conditions.  A  selfish,  unobliging 
man  was  in  bed  at  midnight  and  angrily  unwilling  to 
be  disturbed,  but  because  his  neighbor  persisted  in 
knocking,  the  crabbed  fellow  got  up  and  gave  him 
bread  to  set  before  some  guests  who  had  overtaken  him 
with  an  empty  larder.  An  unjust  judge  also,  who  neither 
feared  God  nor  man,  was  so  moved  by  the  persist- 
ence of  a  poor  widow — a  type  of  helplessness  in  a  cor- 
rupt court  of  law — that  simply  through  the  fear  of  being 
wearied  by  her  continual  coming,  he  gave  her  justice. 
These  are  arguments  e  contrario.  If  perseverance  in 
the  face  of  such  adverse  conditions  gains  its  end,  how 
much  more  will  persevering  prayer  secure  its  o'bject 
when  directed  to  the  Benevolent  Father.  And  these 
are  but  samples  of  the  many  confident  assurances  the 
Scriptures  offer  us  regarding  the  utility  of  honest  prayer. 
A  further  presumption  in  favor  of  the  efficacy  of 
prayer  arises  from  the  example  of  Jesus.  Not  all  men 
accept  our  belief  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God,  but  the 
most  enlightened  portions  of  the  globe  regard  Him  as 
the  best  man  that  ever  lived,  in  fact,  a  Perfect  Man. 
It  is  significant,  then,  that  the  Perfect  Man  was  a  man 
of  prayer.  Humanity  at  its  best  prays.  He  spent 
whole  nights  in  prayer.  He  taught  His  disciples  to 
pray.  He  left  one  prayer  so  beautiful,  so  comprehen- 
sive, so  acceptable  to  the  needs  of  the  human  heart,  that 


120  THE    MAIN    POINTS. 

when  the  representatives  of  all  the  religions  of  the  world 
met  in  a  parliament  at  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago,  the 
Lord's  Prayer  was  by  universal  consent  adopted  as  the 
form  of  petition  for  the  opening  of  the  sessions.  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  Cretes  and  Arabians,  Buddhists  and 
Christians,  Mohammedans  and  Hindoos  could  all  speak 
to  the  Father  through  those  simple  words,  as  if  in  a  lan- 
guage to  which  they  were  born.  Jesus,  the  author  of 
this  universal  prayer,  made  the  most  confident  promises 
we  have  as  to  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  He  saw  life  large 
and  whole,  and  with  His  clear-eyed  intelligence  as  to 
moral  things,  He  lifted  prayer,  by  precept  and  by  ex- 
ample, into  a  higher  place  than  it  had  ever  been  lifted 
before.  The  whole  life  of  this  Perfect  Man  was  bathed 
in  prayer,  and  He  prayed  straight  on  even  when  His  ene- 
mies were  killing  Him.  The  disciple  surely  cannot  do 
better  than  to  be  as  his  Lord.  When  some  of  our 
friends  have  grown  so  wise  that  they  do  not  pray,  but 
scoff  at  the  idea  of  prayer  accomplishing  anything,  we 
may  well  compare  their  moral  intelligence  and  their 
spiritual  power  with  that  of  Jesus,  and  then  remember 
that  Jesus  never  lost  confidence  in  prayer.  If  men 
would  even  face  toward  Christlike  perfection,  and 
move  upon  it  in  any  determined  way,  they  must  become 
men  of  prayer. 

Still  another  strong  presumption  in  favor  of  the  value 
of  prayer  comes  to  us  when  we  turn  to  the  long  and 
broad  lines  of  human  experience.  The  scientific  way 
of  reaching  the  truth  is  not  to  sit  down  and  reason  out 
in  advance  what  ought  to  be  the  fact,  what  is  possible 
and  probable  in  this  big  world  of  which  we  even  now 
know  so  little:  the  scientific  method  is  to  go  and  see. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRATER.  121 

Human  beings  have  always  had  the  habit  of  prayer. 
There  have  been  cities  without  walls,  without  schools, 
without  markets,  without  books,  without  many  things 
that  we  ordinarily  associate  with  city  life,  but  never  a 
city  built  without  its  places  of  prayer.  Prayer  is  a  per- 
sistent, incurable  habit  of  the  race.  And  as  we  study 
this  persistent  habit  of  mankind,  it  is  instructive  to  re- 
call the  testimony  of  a  distinguished  evolutionist  that 
in  Nature  it  is  true  that  "everywhere  the  internal  ad- 
justment has  been  brought  about  so  as  to  harmonize 
with  some  actually  existing  eternal  fact.  If  the  rela- 
tion thus  established  in  the  morning  twilight  of  man's 
existence  between  the  human  soul  and  a  world  invisible 
and  immaterial,  is  a  relation  of  which  only  the  subjec- 
tive term  is  real  and  the  objective  term  is  non-existent, 
then,  I  say,  it  is  something  utterly  without  precedent 
in  the  whole  history  of  creation.  The  lesson  of  evolu- 
tion is  that  through  all  these  weary  ages  the  human  soul 
has  not  been  cherishing  in  religion  a  delusive  phantom, 
but  in  spite  of  seemingly  endless  groping  and  stumbling, 
it  has  been  rising  to  the  recognition  of  its  essential  kin- 
ship with  the  ever-living  God."1 

And  what  has  been  the  broadly  ascertained  result  of 
this  wide-spread  and  long-continued  effort  to  realize 
kinship  with  God  through  prayer?  The  cumulative  an- 
swer comes  back  from  multitudes  of  praying  men — the 
whole  moral  nature  has  been  changed;  great  and  gra- 
cious answers  of  peace  have  fallen  upon  them:  an  added 
security  and  confidence  has  clothed  their  lives.  I  would 
not  turn  to  those  exceptional  and  surprising  answers  to 
prayer  sometimes  collected  into  books  of  anecdotes. 
1  John  Fiske,  "Through  Nature  to  God,"  pp.  189,  191. 


122  THE    MAiy   POINTS. 

There  have  been  curious  coincidences  whrch  have  some- 
times been  shoved  forward  as  the  very  foundation  stones 
for  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  I  myself  have  wit- 
nessed remarkable  occurrences  which  were  apparently 
in  response  to  the  faithful  appeals  of  God's  children  in 
times  of  extremity.  These  are  not  to  be  slighted,  but  in 
this  consideration  of  prayer,  I  should  choose  to  rest  it 
rather  upon  the  broad  and  ordinary  lines,  where,  so  to 
speak,  there  are  uninterrupted  and  unexceptional  an- 
swers coming  back  to  men  as  they  pray.  The  'moral  ef- 
fects of  the  habit  of  honest  prayer  are  so  well  known 
and  so  definitely  ascertainable  as  to  lend  strong  aid  in 
lifting  this  exercise  into  the  place  of  dignity  and  the  re- 
gion of  high  €onfidence  where  it  rightly  belongs. 

These  four  presumptions,  then,  taken  from  the  nat- 
ural implications  of  our  belief  in  God,  from  the  confi- 
dent promises  of  that  book  which  contains  Supreme 
Court  decisions  and  forms  the  common  law  of  spiritual 
life,  from  the  habit  and  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  from 
long  lines  of  human  experience,  must  all  have  weight  in 
determining  any  one's  attitude  toward  prayer.  But 
still  if  we  are  to  pray  joyously  and  effectively,  we  ought 
to  have  clearly  in  our  minds  some  rational  theory  as  to 
the  necessity  for  prayer  and  the  method  of  its  operation. 
We  must  be  able  to  love  prayer  with  all  our  minds  and 
with  all  our  strength,  as  well  as  with  our  hearts  and 
souls.  Therefore  I  shall  also  speak  of  the  philosophy 
or  rationale  of  this  religious  exercise. 

As  I  have  heard  them,  the  two  main  objections  to 
prayer  on  rational  grounds  are  these:  the  one  from  a 
scientific  and  the  other  from  a  philosophical  point  of 
view.  The  claim  is  made  that  answers  to  prayer  must 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRATER.  123 

involve  an  interruption  of  a  certain  order  which  God 
has  established;  they  would  mean,  therefore,  a  violation 
of  law.  In  the  presence  of  the  unbending  constancy 
and  uniformity  of  the  physical  system  that  surrounds  us, 
and  in  view  of  the  apparent  unvarying  and  unalterable 
character  of  its  laws,  which  give  "an  overwhelming  im- 
pression of  moral  indifference,"  prayer  to  some  minds 
seems  like  an  irrational  proceeding.  It  appears  to  them 
as  though  a  puny  being  was  urging  upon  the  Omnipotent 
One  that  the  great  through  traffic  of  the  world  should 
be  side-tracked  in  order  to  give  his  little  local  train  the 
right  of  way. 

The  other  objection  is  to  the  effect  that  if  God  is  wise 
and  good,  He  will  know  and  do  what  is  best  for  us  and 
for  every  one  without  our  asking — indeed  to  ask  Him  for 
anything  implies  a  certain  solicitude  as  to  His  appro- 
priate action  and  is  an  impertinence  in  that  it  calls  upon 
Him  to  change  His- line  of  action  in  obedience  to  our 
suggestion.  That  is  to  say,  when  we  pray  we  must  have 
a  feeling  that  God  is  not  doing  as  well  as,  or  all  £hat» 
He  might  do.  I  have  stated  the  difficulties  which  are  the 
practical  ones  most  often  named  to  me  in  my  contact 
with  serious  people.  All  the  lesser  questions  that  arise 
are  really  comprehended  within  these  more  fundamental 
ones. 

In  regard  to  the  first  that  an  answer  to  prayer  involves 
the  violation  of  law,  we  sometimes  frighten  ourselves  un- 
necessarily by  writing  the  word  "Law"  with  a  capital 
letter,  and  then  imagining  that  it  is  a  kind  of  second- 
hand deity  of  itself,  never  to  be  interfered  with  by  any 
one  in  heaven  above  or  earfh  beneath.  All  this  is  purely 
verbal.  Law  is  simply  a  name  for  the  regular  orderly 


124  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

habits  of  that  Creator  who  is  over  all  and  in  all  things. 
We  have  observed  certain  of  His  cosmic  habits  as  being 
regular  and  have  called  them  "laws."  But  God  is  not 
bound  by  them.  He  has  not  tied  His  own  hands  by  cer- 
tain of  His  own  habits.  On  the  whole  He  apparently 
deems  it  best  to  observe  them  uniformly  that  his 
creatures  may  depend  upon  his  activity  in  certain  mat- 
ters— the  rising  of  the  sun,  the  return  of  the  seasons, 
the  growth  of  seed,  the  bodily  conditions  of  health  and 
disease — with  solid  certainty.  These  habits  are  wise 
and  good  or  He  would  not  have  adopted  them.  But  to 
fancy  that  He  will  not  and  cannot  do  anything  differ- 
ent; to  imagine,  for  instance,  that  He  could  not  rein- 
force and  quicken  that  activity  which  we  have  thought- 
lessly called  "the  healing  process  of  nature"  in  the  case 
of  the  sick;  to  deny  His  power  to  help  by  some  un- 
usual movement  af  His  silent  energy  for  the  relief  of  one 
of  His  children  in  an  emergency,  would  be  to  make  Him 
less  than  God. 

Thes>e  scientific  laws  which  are  often  held  up  as 
bogies  to  frighten  the  children  of  the  Father  out  of  their 
confidence  in  Him,  are  simply  the  best  we  know  thus 
far  about  some  manifestations  of  the  Eternal  Energy 
of  God.  The  truly  scientific  man  never  assumes  to  say 
what  may  or  may  not  be  possible.  He  does  not  deny  the 
possibility  of  miracles,  or  the  possibility  of  the  most 
astonishing  answers  to  prayer — it  is  with  him  purely  a 
matter  of  evidence  as  to  what  has  actually  occurred.  It 
must  be  so.  We  have  been  surprised  so  many  times  that 
we  may  possibly  be  surprised  again.  There  are  more 
things  in  this  world  of  ours  than  men  have  dreamed  of. 
and  more  things  wrought  by  prayer  than  hasty  philoso- 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRATER.  125 

phies  allow.  Hasty  men  might  have  said  fifty  years 
ago  that  it  would  be  scientifically  impossible  to  run  a 
heavy  street  car  through  our  streets,  loaded  with  a  hun- 
dred people,  heated,  lighted  and  moved  by  a  current  of 
electricity  from  a  single  wire.  He  might  have  said  it 
would  be  scientifically  impossible  to  talk  from  New 
York  to  Chicago  and  have  the  familiar  tones  of  a  friend's 
voice  recognized,  or  to  transmit  by  electricity  a  signa- 
ture preserving  its  well-known  individuality.  He  might 
have  said  it  would  be  scientifically  impossible  to  tele- 
graph with  perfect  accuracy  across  the  British  Channel 
without  wires.  He  might  have  said  that  the  present 
phenomena  of  thought  transference,  hypnotism,  healing 
by  suggestion,  recognized  by  scientific  men  as  beyond 
a  peradventure,  would  be  scientifically  impossible.  We 
are  constantly  learning  more  about  the  subtle,  fine,  in- 
visible forces  in  this  world  we  live  in.  We  are  not  pre- 
pared off-hand  therefore  to  decide  upon  what  is  or 
what  is  not  impossible,  or  to  pass  upon  the  claims  that 
many  of  earth's  wisest  and  best  men  have  made  regard- 
ing prayer,  without  the  most  painstaking  investigation. 
When  I  begin  to  pray  for  my  own  physical  health, 
for  the  recovery  of  some  sick  friend,  for  success  in  my 
undertakings,  for  moral  peace  and  strength,  or  for 
any  legitimate  object,  I  set  in  motion  new  forces.  They 
begin  to  act  not  in  violation  of  law;  they  introduce  a  new 
element  to  be  reckoned  with.  The  man  drawing  water 
out  of  a  well,  where  the  force  of  gravitation  would  cause 
the  water  to  stay,  is  not  violating  a  universal  law;  he 
is  bringing  to  bear  another  force  which  alters  what 
would  have  been  the  natural  position  of  the  water.  The 
man  who  prays  puts  in  operation  a  kind  of  energy,  invis- 


126  THE    MAIN    POINTS. 

ible  as  electricity  or  as  the  atmospheric  waves  that  make 
possible  wireless  telegraphy  across  the  Channel,  or  as  the 
force  that  acts  in  the  case  of  thought  transference,  but 
just  as  real.  Prayer  is  the  action  of  a  man  bringing 
his  need  by  a  moral  act  up  to  and  linking  it  with  the 
offered  help  of  God.  This  brings  to  bear  upon  the  situa- 
tion a  new  force. 

When  therefore  I  stand  amazed  on  the  one  hand 
at  the  results  accomplished  by  certain  subtle,  invisible 
forces  with  which  we  are  becoming  acquainted,  and 
when  I  turn  on  the  other  hand  to  the  confident  words 
of  that  Master  in  the  kingdom  of  the  spirit,  I  am  not 
disturbed  in  my  faith  by  scientific  objections  as  to  the 
efficacy  of  prayer.  A  man  standing  in  his  noblest  atti- 
tude before  God,  turning  his  whole  mind  and  soul  God- 
ward,  bending  all  his  energy  of  will  and  affection  toward 
the  attainment  of  a  holy  end,  is  a  force  that  we  cannot 
readily  estimate.  As  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  said, 
"prayer  is  the  transcendent  effort  of  intelligence." 
Jesus  did  not  use  scientific  language  —  he  uniformly 
used  popular  language,  but  he  seeuns  to  have  made  this 
point  clear,  for  moral  ends  and  for  the  purposes  of  rich 
spiritual  development,  God  has  within  his  keeping  cer- 
tain great  helps  for  men  in  all  the  needs  of  life,  and 
these  are  obtainable  only  by  that  noble  exercise  of  the 
highest  faculties,  which  we  call  prayer. 

The  other  objection  arises  from  the  question  as  to 
why  a  wise  and  good  God  withholds  action  until  we  ask, 
or  how  we  can  respectfully  ask  Him  to  change  what 
according  to  our  belief  in  His  character  must  already 
have  been  perfect  action.  Such  a  priori  objections 
might  be  carried  into  other  fields  as  well.  Why  does 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRAJER.  127 

a  good  God  withhold"  from  his  children  a  wheat  har- 
vest until  they  have  plowed,  sowed  and  reaped?  Be- 
cause toil  is  good  for  the  moral  development  of  men, 
we  are  told.  Why  does  God  hide  away  treasures  of  gold 
in  the  hills,  locking  it  up  in  quartz,  scattering  its 
grains  through  the  clay  and  sand,  covering  it  over  with 
mountains?  Because  toil  is  goad  for  men,  and  it  would 
have  been  a  foolish  and  fatal  kindness  to  have  laid  these 
values  in  heaps  ready  to  man's  hand.  All  things  have 
been  done  and  are  being  done  now  for  the  moral  educa- 
tion of  the  race.  In  all  that  God  does,  whether  in  cleans- 
ing and  strengthening  the  spiritual  life,  in  guiding  the 
thought,  or  in  healing  the  body,  and  ordering  the  sea- 
sons and  climate,  God  has  in  mind  the  moral  improve- 
ment of  his  people.  Now  certain  blessings  and  benefits 
are  conditioned  upon  our  asking  for  them  because  men 
nowhere  receive  more  effective  and  vital  moral  educa- 
tion than  in  waiting  upon  God  in  honest  prayer.  The 
soul  never  stands  in  such  dignity  of  privilege,  never  as- 
serts its  richest  prerogative  so  fully  as  when,  standing 
face  to  face  with  its  Maker,  it  talks  with  him  of  the 
things  that  belong  to  its  peace. 

This  is  a  strange  objection  to  prayer  when  you  really 
think  of  it!  Why  does  a  wise  and  good  God,  knowing 
and  feeling  our  needs,  require  us  to  come  and  ask  Him 
before  He  grants  His  help?  That  is  to  say,  why  does 
He  not  go  on  and  do  what  is  wise  and  best  and  thus 
leave  us  free  to  spend  our  time  with  someone  or  some- 
thing else,  instead  of  spending  it  with  Him!  The  ob- 
jection vanishes  the  moment  you  remember  that  all 
things  are  ordered  with  reference  to  strengthening  the 
moral  bond  between  the  Father  and  His  children.  If 


128  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

any  of  you  are  parents,  why  do  you  love  to  have  your 
children  come  to  you,  talk  over  their  affairs  with  you, 
ask  you  for  what  they  want,  sometimes  wisely  and  some- 
times unwisely?  You  know  that  their  coming  and  the 
consequent  reinforcement  of  the  bond  between  you  and 
them  is  not  only  a  joy  to  you,  it  is  for  the  lasting  ad- 
vantage of  the  children.  Thus  a  wise  and  good  God  for 
the  same  sacred  ends  waits  and  withholds  certain  bless- 
ings until  His  children  obediently  and  lovingly  come 
to  Him  in  prayer.  It  is  an  unspeakable  loss  for  children 
never  to  have  known  the  love  and  companionship  of 
the  earthly  father  and  mother.  It  is  a  greater  loss  for 
a 'man  never  to  know  through  heart  to  heart  connmunion 
the  companionship  of  a  Heavenly  Father.  Therefore  be- 
cause of  the  incompleteness  of  our  moral  development 
without  just  this,  God  has  made  certain  .benefits,  tem- 
poral as  well  as  spiritual,  conditional  upon  our  coming 
to  Him  in  prayer,  to  the  end  that  we  may  thus  be  at- 
tracted and  encouraged  to  know  Him,  whom  to  know  is 
life  eternal. 

Prayer  will  bear  the  scientific  and  the  philosophic 
tests,  and  its  realities  can  be  stated  in  the  language  of  the 
schools.  Yet  the  simple  familiar  language  Jesus  used  puts 
it  more  clearly  and  effectively.  As  a  boy  you  did  not 
stand  waiting  outside  your  father's  door  when  you  were 
conscious  of  some  need  that  he  could  supply.  You  did 
not  tarry,  reasoning  away  in  metaphysical  fashion,  that 
if  your  father  was  wise  and  good  he  would  do  what  was 
best;  or  that  any  suggested  deviation  would  be  a  viola- 
tion of  the  family  order  and  of  his  law,  which  must  be 
right  since  he  established  it.  You  went  in  and  began  to 
ask.  It  was  better  for  you  to  go  in  and  ask,  even. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRATER.  129 

though  your  requests  lacked  wisdom  and  included  things 
which  your  father  could  not  grant.  The  eight-year-old 
boy  who  asked  for  the  shotgun  did  not  get  it,  but  he  re- 
ceived something  better  than  a  shotgun  through  that 
hour  of  companionship  with  his  father.  Except  ye  be- 
come as  little  children  then,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the 
meaning  and  help  of  prayer. 

Practical  business  men  have  sometimes  turned  away 
from  prayer  as  a  thing  well  enough  for  women  and 
children  and  ministers,  but  as  having  no  attraction  for 
clear-headed  men  of  affairs.  But  they  too,  by  reason  of 
the  stress  of  this  work-a-day  world,  'have  felt  the  need 
of  something  to  lift  their  lives  to  a  higher  plane  and 
give  them  a  certain  something  that  should  constitute 
and  preserve  their  utmost  nobility.  They  have  felt  the 
need  of  knowing  Him  whom  the  wisest  of  men  called 
"The  Father/'  If  they  would  go  in,  not  troubling  them- 
selves about  the  exact  words  to  be  used  or  the  particular 
range  of  their  requests,  not  embarrassing  themselves 
by  scientific  and  metaphysical  questions  that  once 
seemed  to  block  the  way,  but  becoming  as  little  children, 
going  in  to  speak  to  their  father,  the  philosophy  of 
prayer  would  be  cleared  of  its  difficulties  by  their  own 
blessed  personal  experience. 

Two  things  ought  always  to  be  borne  in  mind.  First, 
that  the  chief  object  of  prayer  is  not  to  get  something. 
The  claim  has  been  made  by  thoughtless  people  that  if 
we  have  faith  we  can  get  anything  we  want.  Jesus  had 
faith.  He  prayed  "Let  this  cup  pass  from  me."  It  did 
not  pass.  He  drank  it  next  day  on  the  cross.  But  he 
continued  that  same  prayer  until  He  could  say  "If  I 
must  drink  it,  not  my  will  but  Thine  be  done."  And 
The  Main  Points.— 9 


130  TEE   MAIN   POINTS. 

then  He  added,  "Not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt." 
Prayer  is  not  something  by  which  we  can  stand  before 
God  and  say  "Not  as  Thou  wilt,  but  as  I  will."  Its 
deeper  purpose  is  to  bring  us  into  harmony  with  Him, 
where  we  say  naturally  "Thy  will  be  done."  That  of 
itself  is  a  great  answer.  What  better  thing  could  come 
to  us  than  that  we  should  be  made  able  to  say  to  the 
Perfect  One,  "Thy  will  be  done  in  me  and  for  me." 
By  this  we  do  not  mean  a  mere  passive  acquiescence  in 
the  inevitable.  It  implies  conscious  self-devotement  to 
the  thing  to  be  done.  Jesus  prayed  until  He  could  say, 
"Thy  will  be  done,"  and  then  said,  "Eise  up,  let  us  be 
going,"  and  went  away  to  do  the  Father's  will.  The 
prayer  that  brings  us  into  voluntary  harmony  with  God 
has  in  that  very  fact  wrought  a  gracious  answer. 

We  are  not  firmly  intent  upon  getting  our  wills  done 
nor  do  we  suppose  that  it  would  be  right  that  we  should. 
God  has  not  resigned  the  management  of  the  world  into 
the  hands  of  his  fumbling  children,  whether  they  stand 
upon  their  feet  or  kneel.  It  would  be  a  strange  family 
where  the  will  of  the  children  ruled  the  home.  Many 
prayers  will  fail  to  bring  the  specific  thing  they  sought. 
James  said,  "The  prayer  of  faith  will  save  the  sick," 
yet  he  knew  there  would  come  a  last  sickness  when  all 
would  die,  even  though  prayer  for  their  recovery  might 
be  offered.  The  universe  is  not  a  democracy  where  the 
people  rule  by  their  wishes  expressed  in  prayer  or  other- 
wise. It  is  a  kingdom  where  God  rules  in  a  fatherly  way 
over  the  lives  of  his  growing,  but  immature  children.  It 
would  be  a  calamity  indeed  if  every  ignorant  prayer 
could  be  answered;  if  the  world  was  managed  totally  by 
our  wishes  instead  of  by  His  higher  wisdom.  So  the 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRATER.  131 

chief  purpose  of  prayer  throughout  is  not  that  of  getting 
our  will  done  or  of  getting  anything,  but  the  enjoyment 
of  the  rich  privilege  of  being  with  the  Father,  and  of 
being  brought  into  active  harmony  with  His  holy  will. 

Jesus  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  the  clamorous, 
insistent  kind  of  prayer  intent  upon  its  own  ends  would 
give  place.  He  reminded  us  that  men  are  not  heard  for 
their  much  speaking.  He  said  of  a  certain  time  coming, 
"In  that  day  ye  shall  ask  nothing."  The  petitionary  ele- 
ment would  gradually  be  overshadowed  by  the  sense  of 
holy  companionship.  When  you  are  praying,  you  are  in 
the  highest  company  possible.  The  very  fact  that  you 
are  there  is  a  wide  answer  to  your  request,  and  a  rich 
reward  for  your  act.  "Hours  are  well  spent  when  they 
are  spent  with  Him."  "When  you  fail  of  obtaining  some 
specific  request  it  does  not  destroy  your  faith  in  prayer, 
nor  incline  you  to  cease.  The  eight-year-old  boy  who 
failed  of  the  shotgun  did  not  stop  associating  with  his 
father.  The  parent  who  in  pleading  for  a  child's  life, 
looks  up  defiantly,  silently  vowing  that  if  the  child  dies, 
she  will  never  pray  again,  is  not  in  the  spirit  or  attitude 
of  prayer  at  all.  She  has  thrown  aside  her  faith  in  the 
great  truth  that  a  larger  wisdom  controls  all  things  and 
that  whatever  the  issue,  she  has  enjoyed  an  unspeakable 
advantage  in  that  she  has  been  brought  by  her  prayer 
into  closer  fellowship  with  the  Father. 

The  other  consideration  is  that  prayer  is  not  a  mere 
intellectual  exercise  or  an  effort  of  the  will;  prayer  is 
ethical  and  must  be  an  act  of  the  total  nature.  It  is  the 
"effectual,  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man"  that 
"availeth  much" — no  promises  are  made  as  to  the  re- 
sults of  the  unrighteous  man's  attempts  at  prayer.  The 


132  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

assurance  is  given  to  "the  Tightened  man  who  is  in  line 
with  the  laws  under  which  he  makes  his  experiments." 
"When  ye  pray  say,  Our  Father."  This  describes  our 
thought  of  God  when  we  pray  and  it  also  describes  what 
we  must  be.  We  must  ask  as  His  children.  We  are  to 
make  our  requests  with  filial  freedom  and  confidence, 
but  they  must  proceed  also  from  a  filial  nature.  We 
must  stand  in  a  reverent,  obedient,  trustful,  loving  at- 
titude before  Him  even  to  utter  the  first  two  words  of 
genuine  prayer.  We  must  find  our  places  in  His  house, 
at  His  table,  and  in  His  service  as  good  children,  be- 
fore our  total  natures  can  look  up  and  say  "Our  Father." 
Even  the  sinful  man,  in  order  to  pray  for  his  own  for- 
giveness, must  come  in  penitence  and  with  the  new  pur- 
pose that  enables  him  to  say,  "Our  Father." 

And  then  Jesus  added  further,  "If  ye  shall  ask  any- 
thing in  My  name,  I  will  do  it."  His  name  was  to  be 
used  not  as  a  mere  endorsement  at  the  end  or  as  a  grace- 
ful conclusion  of  our  requests.  "The  thought  is  surely 
not  that  of  using  the  name  of  Jesus  as  a  password  or  a 
talisman,  but  of  entering  into  His  person  and  appro- 
priating His  will,  so  that  when  we  pray  it  sihall  be  as 
though  Jesus  Himself  stood  in  God's  presence  and  made 
intercession."1  To  pray  in  tftie  name  of  Jesus  is  to 
pray  in  His  spirit,  and  to  pray  for  the  things  He  would 
pray  for.  And  what  did  He  pray  for  in  His  recorded 
prayers?  Not  for  wealth,  ease,  fame,  personal  pleasure, 
or  even  success,  except  along  moral  lines.  The  Lord's 
Prayer  contains  one  petition  for  material  blessing,  but  it 
modestly  limits  itself  to  asking  daily  bread  for  im- 
mediate needs.  The  other  five  petitions  are  for  the  hal- 
lowing of  God's  name,  for  the  coming  of  His  Kingdom, 

l  A.  J.  Gordon,  "The  Ministry  of  the  Spirit,"  p.  147. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  PRATER.  138 

for  the  doing  of  his  will  on  earth,  for  forgiveness,  and 
for  deliverance  from  evil.  The  prayer  moves  chiefly  in 
the  realm  of  moral  things  and  all  prayer  offered  in  the 
spirit  of  Christ  will  lay  the  emphasis  there. 

I  would  not  seek  to  limit  prayer  to  spiritual  matters. 
We  have  abundant  scriptural  warrant  for  praying  for 
rain,  for  health,  for  prosperity  in  temporal  affairs,  but 
always  with  an  eye  to  the  bearing  of  these  benefits  on 
the  coming  of  His  kingdom  in  our  hearts  and  in  the 
world.  The  material  advantages  sought  are  to  be  sub- 
ordinate to  the  spiritual  benefits  that  stand  as  the  su- 
preme ends  to  be  gained  in  prayer.  Pray  for  health, 
for  intelligence,  for  opportunities,  for  the  success  of 
your  legitimate  plans,  but  always  that  in  and  through 
these  you  may  the  more  perfectly  glorify  God  as  a  use- 
ful servant!  To  pray  with  this  subordination  of  private 
interest  to  the  larger  demands  of  the  coming  kingdom 
is  to  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  shows  what 
an  ethical  act  prayer  must  be  and  how  it  can  only  be 
acceptably  and  effectively  offered  by  those  who  are 
bringing  their  lives  by  personal  consecration  into  right 
relations  with  the  King  of  the  Kingdom.  When  it  is 
thus  offered,  the  hand  of  the  petitioner  is  knocking  at 
the  door  that  opens  on  the  treasure  house  of  the  Un- 
seen, in  the  confident  assurance  that  "To  him  that 
knocketh  it  shall  be  opened." 


VIII. 
THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

In  certain  quarters  we  find  a  curious  disposition  that 
speaks  in  glowing  terms  of  Christ  and  then  with  the  last 
half  of  the  same  breath  denounces  His  church.  We  are 
told  with  hearty  confidence  that  it  does  not  matter 
whether  people  have  ever  been  baptized,  taken  com- 
munion, or  belonged  to  the  church — that  on  the  whole 
it  is  rather  better  for  them  if  they  have  not  done  any  of 
these  ehurchly  things.  And  yet  these  sweeping,  drastic 
statements  are  coupled  with  enthusiastic  praises  for 
Christ  Himself. 

It  might  be  well  to  remind  these  friends  who  thus 
laud  Christ  that  this  was  not  His  attitude.  The  church 
of  His  day  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  sincere,  so  ef- 
ficient along  humane  lines  of  activity,  nor  so  well 
stocked  with  simple,  every-day  righteousness,  as  is  the 
average  church  of  our  own  time.  Yet  it  was  his  cus- 
tom to  go  into  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath.  He  ob- 
served the  appointed  feasts  of  his  national  church.  He 
utilized  the  opportunities  it  offered  for  moral  effort. 
And  this  same  Jesus  who  taught  "the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man,"  at  the  close  of  His 
life  sent  out  His  apostles  to  teach  all  men  what  He  had 
taught  them,  and  to  baptize  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 

(135) 


136  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

only  place  where  this  command  is  being  obeyed  is  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  The  same  Jesus  who  told  men  to  love 
God  and  love  their  neighbors,  also  instituted  the  Lord's 
Supper  and  gave  the  command,  "Do  this  in  remem- 
brance of  Me."  The  only  place  where  this  command  is 
being  obeyed  and  this  sacrament  regularly  and  devoutly 
observed  is  in  the  church.  So  there  is  a  certain  con- 
fusion and  inconsistency  in  those  who  praise  Christ  and 
then  denounce  His  church. 

Jesus  spoke  in  the  most  definite  terms  of  his  purpose 
to  build  a  church.  Around  him  were  many  who  held 
various  theories  about  Him,  and  who  in  varying  degrees 
cherished  admiration  for  His  work.  Close  beside  Him 
was  one  who  loved  Him,  trusted  Him,  appreciated  and 
in  a  degree  understood  Him.  In  response  to  an  inquiry 
from  the  Master  this  man  made  a  right  confession  of  his 
faith.  In  this  personal  attitude  Christ  saw  the  promise 
of  the  future.  So  he  said,  alluding  to  Peter's  name, 
which  means  "a  stone,"  "on  this  rock  of  personal  loyalty 
and  trust  I  will  build  my  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell, 
with  all  the  opposition  they  can  send,  shall  not  prevail 
against  it." 

The  Scriptures  speak  of  "the  Church  of  the  Living 
God,"  as  sustaining  a  special  relation  to  Him;  they  call 
it  "the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth."  It  is  further 
called  "the  household  of  God,  the  family  circle  of  the 
Heavenly  Father."  Another  fine  conception  is  that 
where  it  is  described  as  "the  body  of  Christ."  It  is  the 
visible  organism  through  which  Christ  works.  When 
Jesus  was  on  earth  his  mind  and  soul  were  invisible  as 
they  are  to-day.  He  dwelt  in  and  worked  through  a 
physical  body.  To-day  the  spirit  of  Christ  dwells  in  and 
works  through  "the  Church  which  is  His  body." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  137 

You  readily  see  how  much  is  suggested  in  those  words 
of  St.  Paul.  The  physical  body  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
a  field  for  the  manifestation  of  His  glory.  God's  love 
looked  out  of  His  face  and  divine  glory  shone  there.  No 
man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time;  no  man  ever  saw  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  but  in  time  they  came  to  know  His 
Spirit  through  the  revelation  made  in  that  body  that 
walked  the  lanes  of  Galilee  and  the  streets  of  Jerusalem. 

His  body  was  also  his  instrument  for  accomplishing 
His  work.  Its  feet  carried  him  where  He  would  go;  its 
hands  were  laid  upon  the  sick  with  healing  touch;  its 
lips  spoke  the  truth  of  the  Father;  its  eyes  were  windows 
through  which  men  saw  shining  upon  them  an  Infinite 
Compassion. 

His  body  was  also  a  transforming  agency.  The  com- 
mon earthly  food  of  Palestine  was  taken  up  and  through 
that  body  made  to  give  life  and  energy  to  the  mind  and 
spirit  that  carried  on  their  mighty  mission. 

All  this  is  true,  or  ought  to  be  true,  of  the  Church  of 
Christ.  The  church  is  a  revealing  place  for  the  spirit 
of  Christ.  In  the  attitude  of  the  church,  that  of  the 
members  toward  one  another  and  of  all  toward  the  need 
of  the  world,  men  are  to  see  the  love  of  God  looking  out 
and  the  glory  of  God  shining.  The  church  is  also  to  be- 
come hands  and  feet,  eyes  and  lips  for  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  to  go  upon  His  errands  of  mercy,  to  labor  ef- 
fectively for  the  relief  of  human  hurt,  to  see  the  op- 
portunity, and  to  speak  in  clear  tones  the  gospel  of  hope. 
The  church  is  also  a  transforming  agency  where  com- 
mon earthly  men  are  taken  up  and  by  the  force  of  the 
transforming  transfiguring  Spirit  that  dwells  in  all 
bodies  of  true  believers,  changed  and  brought  into  en- 


138  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

ergy  and  power  of  a  higher  sort.  The  relation  that  the 
physical  body  of  Jesus  sustained  to  His  Spirit  of  old 
ought  to  be  sustained  by  His  Church  to  Him  now.  In 
proportion  to  its  consecration,  its  eager  faith  and  its 
ready  responsiveness  to  the  touch  of  His  Spirit,  the 
church  must  be  attaining  this  its  high  estate. 

One  special  office  of  the  church  thus  seems  to  be  to 
keep  alive  the  sense  of  God  in  the  world.  Its  very  build- 
ings aid  in  this.  You  pass  down  Twelfth  street,  call- 
ing the  attention  of  visitors  to  the  residences  of  our  citi- 
zens. You  name  the  men  who  live  here  and  who  live 
there.  At  last  you  reach  this  church  and  inform  your 
friends  that  this  is  "the  house  of  God."  He,  too,  is  resi- 
dent among  us  and  mingles  his  thought  and  energy  in 
our  city  life.  The  services  maintained  in  the  church  are 
to  make  men  conscious  of  this  presence  of  God.  Men 
felt  the  love  of  the  Father  when  Jesus  stood  among 
them,  and  to  produce  these  spiritual  experiences  to-day 
with  power,  is  one  of  the  offices  of  this  the  present  body 
of  Christ. 

The  church  is  also  to  stimulate  the  sense  of  devotion 
and  of  obligation  to  do  God's  will.  Ethics  never  rest 
upon  any  foundation  that  stands  sure  and  enforces  its 
decrees  by  august  sanctions,  until  right  and  wrong  are 
seen  to  be  distinctions  between  that  which  is  and  that 
which  is  not  the  will  of  God.  And  just  in  proportion  to 
the  sense  of  companionship  into  which  men  have  been 
brought  with  the  author  and  rewarder  of  good  will  they 
be  made  strong  to  practice  the  precepts  that  are  right. 

The  church  also  stands  to  instruct  men  in  questions 
of  practical  duty  as  Jesus  did.  He  ever  taught  his  com- 
panions about  the  plain  relations  of  common  life.  The 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  139 

church  must  see  the  situation  with  clear  eyes  and  be 
able  to  state  what  ought  be  done  in  order  to  realize  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  In  all  these  ways  it  finds  its 
opportunities  of  usefulness  in  building  men  up  in 
righteousness  and  in  establishing  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

The  church  is  not  only  accorded  a  high  place  in  the 
Scriptures,  it  holds  high  place  from  ttie  very  necessities 
of  the  case.  The  church  is  the  organized  Christianity 
of  the  community.  It  does  not  contain  all  there  is,  but 
it  holds  the  largest  portion:  and  to  continue  the  figure, 
it  brings  the  hands,  the  feet,  the  eyes  and  the  lips  to- 
gether and  organizes  them  for  united  action.  If  the 
Christian  religion  is  to  live  and  assert  itself,  every  prac- 
tical man  can  see  that  it  must  be  organized  and  that 
every  one  who  believes  in  the  value  of  that  religion 
should  be  in  the  organization.  "An  impartial  exami- 
nation of  the  influence  of  organized  religion  upon  so- 
ciety abundantly  discloses  the  fact  that  the  most  con- 
tinuous, steady,  frank  and  powerful  force  in  ethical 
fields  is  exercised  by  the  substantially  uniform  moral 
action  of  our  churches.  Society  confidently  counts 
upon  organized  religion  to  champion  every  thoroughly 
ethical  question  which  arises.  Society  invariable  turns 
to  the  churches  when  some  extraordinary  issue  demands 
an  untiring,  undaunted  advocate."1 

Political  beliefs  are  only  made  effective  by  organized 
parties.  Wage  earners  make  their  cause  known  and  fur- 
ther its  interests  only  as  they  stand  together  in  organ- 
ized effort.  The  combination  of  manufacturers  into 
trusts  is  one  of  the  astounding  signs  of  the  times.  The 

i  E.  Winchester  Donald,  "The  Expansion  of  Religion," 
p.  278. 


140  TEE   MAIN   POINTS. 

man  who  says  he  believes  in  Jesus  Christ  and  in  (his  re- 
ligion, but  does  not  belong  to  the  church  is  both  disobe- 
dient to  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament  and  absurd 
in  his  position.  If  you  were  to  meet  a  man  on  Broadway 
carrying  a  musket,  but  with  no  uniform,  who  told  you 
he  was  a  soldier  on  his  way  to  Manila,  your  first  question 
would  be,  "To  what  company  and  regiment  do  you  be- 
long? Where  is  your  uniform?"  He  might  reply,  "I  do 
not  belong  to  any  regiment;  I  do  not  want  to  make  any 
professions  or  put  on  any  uniform;  I  simply  want  to  go 
out  myself  and  do  what  good  I  can;  perhaps  I  can  shoot 
a  Filipino  now  and  then."  The  folly  of  his  position 
would  make  you  laugh.  He  would  not  only  fail  in 
doing  his  own  best;  his  example  and  presence,  were  he 
allowed  to  go,  would  be  demoralizing  to  the  army  itself. 
The  people  likewise  who  stand  around  sympathizing 
with  the  purposes  of  the  Christian  Church  and  yet  lack- 
ing somehow  in  sufficient  clearsighted  manliness  to 
come  in  and  identify  themselves  with  some  part  of  its 
organized  activity  axe  both  losing  their  own  usefulness 
and  are  a  hindrance  to  the  most  effective  work. 

The  church  is  religion  organized  and  ready  to  take 
the  field.  Or  changing  the  figure,  it  is  a  school  of 
Christian  character  ready  to  do  its  work.  There  are 
those  who  claim  they  do  not  need  to  aittend  church — 
they  can  be  religious  at  home.  They  could  teach  their 
children  at  home  too,  but  on  the  whole  the  public 
schools  do  it  better.  The  teachers  are  not  sages  but 
they  render  the  children  of  'a  community  a  service  that 
could  not  well  be  rendered  in  any  other  way.  It  would 
be  a  foolish  man  who  would  turn  away  from  schools, 
colleges  and  public  libraries  on  iihe  ground  tihat  a  little 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  141 

learning  could  be  hammered  out  on  his  own  little  anvil 
at  home.  People  could  be  religious  at  home,  but  how 
many  of  those  who  habitually  absent  themselves  from 
church  spend  an  hour,  morning  and  evening  on  Sunday, 
in  reading  the  Scripture,  in  prayer,  in  attention  to  some 
phase  of  Christian  duty  and  privilege?  The  ministers 
are  neither  sages  nor  angels,  yet  on  the  whole  they  are 
more  competent  to  teach  the  people  among  whom  they 
live,  sensible,  scriptural  views  of  life  and  duty  than  the 
people  are  to  teach  themselves.  They  ought  to  be,  for 
they  have  studied  the  subject  of  religion  all  their  lives. 
There  would  be  something  wrong  if  the  churoh  were  not 
able  by  its  music,  its  lessons,  its  prayers,  and  its  sermons 
to  lift  the  thought  and  aspiration  of  a  congregation  to 
higher  things  than  it  would  attain  unaided.  So  in  ad- 
dition to  scriptural  sanctions  the  church  is  here  from 
the  necessities  of  the  plain  people  themselves.  "The 
new  life  of  service  and  sacrifice,  brought  to  the  world  by 
Christ  and  begotten  in  us  by  the  Spirit,  at  once  demands 
a  socially  effective  organization  and  expression,  that 
those  who  share  this  life  may  be  bound  closer  together; 
that  the  enthusiasm  of  it  may  be  kept  alive;  that  the 
members  who  share  it  may  be  increased;  and  that  those 
who  are  losing  it  may  be  brought  to  share  its  blessings 
and  its  privileges.  Sudh  an  organization  is  the  church."1 
Without  such  an  organized  expression  of  its  real  life 
and  purpose  for  the  world,  the  religion  of  Jesus  could 
not  exert  the  sway  over  the  hearts  of  men  that  it  needs 
in  order  to  bless  them. 

Organized  religion  would  be  more  effective  if  it  had 
not  broken  itself  into  so  many  pieces.    We  all  deplore 

l  Pres.    Hyde,    "Reorganization    of    the    Faith,"    New 
World,  March,  1899. 


142  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

the  multitude  of  denominations  and  the  consequent 
struggling  churches,  often  more  than  the  community 
needs.  The  demand  for  variety  will  always  remain. 
Some  people  enjoy  more  ritual,  some  less;  some  are  more 
hospitable  to  new  ideas,  some  less  so;  some  trust  the  peo- 
ple more  and  have  simple  democratic  forms  of  govern- 
ment like  ours;  some  prefer  the  rule  of  presbyteries  or 
of  bishops.  But  this  principal  of  variety  has  been  more 
than  provided  for;  it  has  gone  too  far  and  has  created 
ugly  rivalries.  The  sects  are  not  abusing  one  another  as 
they  once  did,  but  there  is  in  almost  every  city  and  town 
an  unseemly  scramble  and  competition  for  the  ear  and 
the  support  of  the  people.  In  a  public  conference  re- 
cently, a  pastor  boasted  that  he  had  just  induced  three 
Methodists,  two  Presbyterians,  four  Baptists  and  one 
Episcopalian  to  come  in  and  be  Congregationalists.  He 
seemed  to  feel  that  it  was  quite  a  victory.  But  getting 
four  soldiers  transferred  from  Company  A  to  Company 
B  does  nothing  to  strengthen  the  army  and  may  really 
weaken  it  if  the  changes  are  frequent  and  subvert  dis- 
cipline. So  in  many  places  there  is  an  undignified  un- 
christian strife  to  get  the  lion's  share  of  the  religiously 
disposed  people. 

There  ought  to  be  greater  unity.  The  platform  laid 
down  by  Paul  was  "One  Lord,  One  Faith,  One  Baptism/' 
Could  we  not  all,  as  Christians,  stand  there  to-day? 
"One  Lord" — I  know  we  have  different  theories  about 
His  person,  about  the  effect  of  His  death,  but  look 
abroad  among  Catholics  and  Protestants,  orthodox  and 
liberal,  in  all  parts  of  Christendom  it  is  that  "One 
Lord,"  Jesus  Christ  who  holds  sway  over  the  thought, 
the  aspiration  and  the  obedience  of  men.  "One  faith" 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  143 

— there  are  many  opinions,  but  opinions  are  not  faith; 
the  one  moral  attitude  toward  God  which  is  saving  in  its 
effect  is  an  attitude  of  trust,  obedience  and  love,  and 
that  sort  of  faith  in  the  mercy  of  God  as  revealed  in 
Christ  is  common  to  all  Christians.  "One  baptism" — 
not  that  of  water,  be  it  by  little  or  by  much,  but  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit  cleansing  and  renewing  the 
heart;  it  is  upon  this  that  all  true  Christians  rely.  On 
these  fundamentals  we  are  all  one.  This  would  never 
serve  as  a  sufficiently  definite  basis  for  church  unity,  but 
the  mere  reference  to  these  words  of  Paul  and  the  sub- 
stantial unity  upon  them  in  all  churches,  shows  how  the 
divisions  have  come  by  emphasizing  things  which  after 
all  may  not  have  been  essential. 

There  are  men  preaching  who  believe  more  than  I  do 
— I  have  no  time  to  be  fighting  them  in  the  pulpit  or 
elsewhere.  There  are  men  preaching  who  believe  less, 
and  I  have  no  time  to  fight  them  either.  "The  devil 
smiles  when  he  sees  Christian  people  using  time  and 
strength  fighting  each  other  when  they  might  be  fight- 
ing him/'  Instead  of  splitting  hairs  over  unessentials 
we  need  to  move  together  to  attain  a  deeper  moral  en- 
thusiasm, a  richer  sense  of  the  presence  of  God,  a  holier 
life  and  a  more  effective  service.  Dean  Hodges  has  well 
said  that  "the  church  threatens  the  world  with  the  Pres- 
byterian finger,  and  with  the  Methodist  finger,  and  with 
the  Congregational  finger,  and  with  the  Baptist  finger, 
and  with  the  Episcopal  thumb,  and  the  devil  is  not  hurt. 
"\Ve  need  to  have  the  hand  doubled  up  into  a  solid  fist 
and  then  the  evil  about  us  will  feel  it." 

The  formal  attempts  at  church  unity  do  not  seem  to 
come  to  anything.  Beyond  a  kind  of  mutual  under- 


144  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

standing  and  perhaps  a  general  federation,  nothing  at 
present  seems  practicable.  But  we  can  serve  the  good 
cause  by  keeping  to  the  front  the  things  whereon  we 
agree  and  by  leaving  others  in  the  rear  until  the  statute 
of  limitations  can  be  pleaded  against  them.  "It  is  in 
spiritual  passion  and  action  and  not  in  speculation  and 
argument  that  human  beings  find  themselves  marching 
side  by  side  in  the  same  great  cause,  their  hearts  beat- 
ing to  the  same  hope  and  harmony.  There  is  no  measur- 
ing the  power  of  a  common  passion  for  righteousness 
to  consume  differences,  to  enlighten  willing  minds,  to 
fuse  and  unify  self-sacrificing  energy."1  Through  this 
growing  passion  for  righteousness,  which  more  and 
more  overshadows  doctrinal  differences,  we  may  confi- 
dently expect  that  the  church  of  the  future  will  be  nobly 
careless  about  many  minor  points  touching  which  wise 
and  good  men  differ;  it  will  be  earnestly  insistent  upon 
the  weightier  matters  of  character  and  conduct. 

In  our  home  missionary  and  our  foreign  missionary 
work,  the  divided  church  has  exposed  us  to  both  criti- 
cism and  difficultly.  "If  the  grocery  trade  was  carried 
on  in  country  towns  as  the  religious  business  is,  there 
would  be  ten  stores  where  only  three  are  needed,  each 
one  full  of  a  cheap,  defective  stock  of  goods  and  on  the 
verge  of  bankruptcy.  If  education  was  carried  on  in  the 
same  way,  there  would  be  one  school  where  all  the 
teachers  were  Democrats,  another  where  they  all  be- 
lieved in  the  nebular  hypothesis,  another  where  they 
were  all  anti-expansionists  perhaps."  The  fundamental 
things,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  all  the  rest 
which  schools  are  set  to  teach  form  one  body  of  elemen- 

l  George  D.  Heron,  "Between  Caesar  and  Jesus,"  p.  223. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  145 

tary  instruction,  and  likewise  the  essential  message  of 
the  churches  to  a  sinful  world  needing  the  mercy  of  God 
in  Christ  for  its  forgiveness  and  cleansing,  its  upbuild- 
ing in  righteousness  and  guidance  to  a  heavenly  home, 
is  all  one.  In  the  foreign  missionary  work  especially  it 
is  hard  to  understand  why  we  have  not  been  content  to 
divide  and  conquer,  to  assign  certain  fields  to  certain  de- 
nominations by  mutual  agreement  and  then  not  dupli- 
cate or  overlap  our  efforts.  It  must  be  confusing  to  a 
heathen  to  be  called  upon,  as  he  is  now,  or  will  be 
presently,  to  decide  upon  the  claims  of  Christian  bap- 
tism by  a  handful  of  water  or  by  a  tankful;  to  pass 
upon  the  claims  of  a  man  who  was  ordained  by  a 
bishop  and  those  of  one  who  was  ordained  by  elders. 
The  differences  that  we  have  wrestled  over  and  found 
rather  petty  after  all  here  at  home,  should  never  be 
exported  to  harass  other  races  of  Christian  pilgrims. 
And  in  our  home  missionary  work  the  denominations 
have  often  been  foolish  and  wicked  in  multiplying  or- 
ganizations in  small  towns  in  order  to  furnish  every 
style  of  sectarian  appetite  with  the  special  meat  for  which 
its  soul  lusteth.  An  unholy  rivalry  between  the  branches 
of  Christ's  Church  and  a  petty  insistence  of  His  follow- 
ers upon  their  particular  forms  or  opinions  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  wider  interests  of  His  kingdom  have  re- 
peatedly lessened  the  moral  power  of  the  church  in  the 
community. 

But  even  in  the  face  of  all  the  shortcomings  of  the 
church,  which  those  within  understand  and  lament 
much  more  than  those  without,  there  is  a  great,  glad 
sense  of  privilege  in  being  a  part  of  this  organized 
Christianity.  We  have  a  sense  of  sharing  in  a  great, 
•The  Main  Points.— 10 


146  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

corporate  life.  "We  belong  to  the  church."  Sometimes 
the  words  are  spoken  so  lightly,  and  yet  how  much  they 
mean!  My  hand  "belongs"  to  my  body.  It  is  incor- 
porated with  it  for  good  or  ill,  for  health  or  for  pain, 
to  share  in  its  service,  to  bear  its  weariness  and  to  ad- 
vance with  it  into  whatever  joy  or  honor  may  come.  A 
man  who  truly  "belongs  to  the  church"  becomes  incor- 
porate with  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  same  vital  way. 
It  is  a  distinct  loss  to  any  soul  to  lack  this  sense  of  union 
with  the  body  of  believers.  It  must  be  strange  for  any 
one  to  travel  in  Europe,  visiting  the  mighty  cathedrals 
reared  by  religious  aspiration;  beholding  masterpieces 
of  painting  and  sculpture  wrought  out  under  the  stim- 
ulus of  religious  emotion;  hearing  the  music  of  the  best 
oratorios,  or  of  the  opera  of  Parsifal,  with  religion  for 
their  theme;  and  to  feel  throughout  that  he  is  a  stranger 
and  a  foreigner  as  to  the  mighty  kingdom  where  all  this 
was  produced.  For  some  reason  he  is  not  a  naturalized 
citizen  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  that  stands  for  so  much 
enrichment  in  the  world's  history.  The  noblest  life  can- 
not be  lived  in  such  a  strange*  detached  position.  All 
healthy  and  vigorous  religious  life  "must  find  institu- 
tional expression.  To  talk  of  the  spiritual  life  apart  from 
the  church,  its  worship  and  its  service,  is  like  talking  of 
patriotism  while  refusing  allegiance  to  any  country."  (1) 

Jesus  told  us  in  advance  that  the  ohurch  would  have 
its  faults.  The  tares  will  grow  with  the  wheat.  Animals 
will  get  into  the  fold  which  look  like  sheep  but  are  not. 
Men  will  go  about  saying  "Lord,  Lord,"  whom  Christ 
does  not  know  or  own,  because  they  hear  His  sayings  and 
do  them  not.  Men  who  stay  out  of  the  church  waiting 

l  Win.  DeWitt  Hyde,  "Practical  Idealism,"  p.  290. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  147 

until  it  shall  clear  itself  of  faults  and  be  perfect,  will 
stay  out  some  time.  The  only  way  to  have  a  church 
without  faults  is  to  stop  admitting  human  beings  as 
members.  But  those  who  refuse  the  church  on  such 
grounds  are  behaving  as  sensible  people  behave  nowhere 
else.  The  man  who  wants  an  education  does  not  wait 
until  he  finds  a  school  where  all  the  professors  and  all 
the  students  know  everything  already:  or  even  one  where 
they  learn  their  lessons  perfectly  and  never  forget  them. 
There  are  no  such  schools.  He  finds  an  institution 
where  the  teachers  are  intelligent,  earnest  and  sincere 
about  their  work;  where  the  students  do  not  imagine 
they  know  all  things,  but  are  there  to  learn;  and  with 
such  a  school  he  casts  in  his  lot.  The  church  is  a 
school  for  Christian  character  and  the  "Disciples,"  as 
Jesus  called  them,  the  learners  or  pupils,  are  under  the 
personal  tuition  of  the  Master  and  of  all  the  body  of 
influences  He  has  established  in  His  Church.  There  are 
occasional  triflers,  but  as  a  rule  the  students  are  there 
to  learn  to  be  like  Him. 

The  excuses  commonly  offered  for  remaining  out  of 
the  church  are  silly  and  weak.  The  people  who  say 
they  "are  not  good  enough"  to  join  the  church  would 
seem  to  imply  that  a  boy  should  never  go  near  a  bicycle 
until  he  had  learned  to  ride.  How  absurd  to  say,  "when 
I  have  become  devout,  righteous,  holy,  I  will  join  the 
church,  but  in  the  meantime  I  cannot  make  any  open 
attempt  at  living  as  a  member  of  the  body  of  Ghrist." 
The  man  who  insists  he  can  be  "just  as  good  outside 
of  the  church"  is  both  stupid  and  wicked.  If  all  men 
acted  as  he  is  acting,  there  would  be  no  churches  in  any 
of  our  cities.  Churches  are  sustained  and  their  work 


148  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

carried  on  almost  entirely  by  their  members;  their  min- 
isters are  taken  uniformly  from  the  ranks  of  the  mem- 
bers and  not  from  those  who  felt  that  they  could  be 
just  as  good  outside.  If  all  remained  outside  therefore 
there  would  be  no  churches:  people  would  be  married  by 
justices  of  the  peace,  buried  without  the  Scripture  lesson 
or  the  prayer;  there  would  be  no  body  of  believers  to 
welcome  the  little  child  with  the  sacrament  of  baptism; 
there  would  be  none  of  these  centers  for  worship  and 
instruction,  for  religious  fellowship  and  charitable  ac- 
tivity. There  are  not  five  hundred  people  in  all  the  half 
a  million  around  the  Bay  who  would  welcome  such  a 
condition  of  affairs.  They  would  not  want  to  live  a  year 
in  a  churchless  city.  Eeal  estate  would  fall  in  price; 
public  morals  would  be  lowered;  children  and  adults 
would  suffer  incalculable  loss  if  the  churches  were 
closed.  Yet  there  are  hundreds  of  people  living  in 
such  a  way  that  if  all  men  acted  as  they  are  acting 
touching  the  church,  this  would  be  a  churchless  place. 
The  man  who  stays  outside  on  such  a  plea  is  a  coward 
and  shirk. 

Yonder  at  the  Pacific  Mail  Dock  lies  the  great  steam- 
ship "China."  When  she  comes  up  to  the  pier  she  has 
the  look  of  one  who  has  accomplished  something.  She 
has  come  all  the  way  from  Hongkong,  seven  thousand 
miles  through  storm  and  wind.  She  has  brought  her 
precious  freight  of  passengers,  business  men  returning 
to  their  families,  missionaries  returning  for  a  visit  to  the 
home  land,  scientists  who  have  been  opening  up  new 
regions  by  exploration.  She  comes  with  her  hold  full  of 
tea  and  silk  and  all  the  riches  of  the  Orient.  And  down 
under  the  water,  huddled  out  of  sight,  are  also  some 
barnacles  clinging  for  their  lives  to  the  side  of  the  ship. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  149 

They  seem  to  say,  "We  .too  axe  here;  we  also  have  come 
all  the  way  from  Hongkong."  If  they  are  totally  igno- 
rant perhaps  they  may  feel  that  somehow  they  too  share 
in  the  "China's"  honor.  So  likewise  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, with  all  its  precious  freight,  with  messages  of  hope 
and  love,  with  a  mighty  cargo  of  helps  for  nobler,  fuller 
life,  with  its  sailing  list  of  devoted  men  and  women 
who  bear  upon  their  shoulders  the  cause  of  human 
progress,  moves  out  to  other  lands,  invades  the  frontiers, 
discharges  holy  influences  in  every  community,  and 
bears  within  it  the  hope  of  mankind.  There  are  in 
every  city  and  town  many  who  never  enroll  them- 
selves as  passengers,  never  become  members  of  the  crew, 
never  walk  its  decks  as  professing  to  share  in  the  move- 
ment: like  the  little  parasites  on  the  "China,"  they  self- 
ishly cling  to  this  Ohrisiti'an  civilization  which  holds 
advantages  for  their  business,  protection  and  help  for 
their  children,  and  all  that  makes  life  worth  living,  re- 
fusing all  the  while  to  share  in  its  deeper  responsibilities. 
They  are  rncro  barnacles  stuck  on  from  without:  they 
the  non-producers  in  this  work  of  Christian  progress. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  perfect  church  is  yet 
to  be.  The  church  has  never  had  offered  to  it  that 
abundance  and  that  quality  of  material  that  would  en- 
able it  to  build  what  is  wholly  worthy  of  being  called 
"the  body  of  Christ."  To  fulfill  the  high  purpose  that 
Paul  expressed  for  it,  the  church  must  come  to  the 
point  where  its  face  shall  shine  with  the  splendor  seen 
on  the  holy  mount  of  old;  its  lips  must  speak  forth 
matchless  words  that  embody  the  thought  of  God;  its 
feet  must  be  swift  to  go  on  errands  of  love  and  its  hands 
nimble  and  strong  to  work  the  works  of  Him  that  builds 


150  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

it.  For  all  this  it  needs  more  and  better  material  offered 
in  loving  consecration.  It  needs  more  intelligence  and 
ability,  more  affection  and  devotion,  more  money  and 
more  service  placed  at  the  call  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
who  builds  the  church  as  the  body  of  His  habitation. 
What  a  sacred  honor  to  offer  one's  life  in  total  self- 
surrender,  in  whole-hearted  consecration,  to  be  thus 
taken  up  and  thus  built  into  that  body  which  is  to  be 
the  perpetual  dwelling-place  of  the  divine  Spirit!  For 
at  the  last,  the  temples  made  with  hands  will  all  have 
vanished,  and  the  final  "tabernacle  of  God  shall  be  with 
men  and  He  shall  dwell  with  them." 


IX. 

THE  HOPE  OF  IMMORTALITY. 

A  man  can  scarcely  set  before  himself  a  more  search- 
ing question  than  the  one  uttered  by  Job — "If  a  man 
die,  shall  he  live  again?"  Am  I  to  live  my  three-score 
years  and  ten  perhaps,  and  then  fall  back  into  nothing- 
ness? Or  am  I  to  live  straight  on,  this  earthly  period 
being  merely  the  first  term  in  a  course  of  education  that 
needs  have  no  end?  You  read  the  true  answer  that  each 
man  gives  not  in  some  high  flown  sentiment  he  utters 
upon  occasion;  he  gives  his  real  reply  in  the  things  upon 
which  he  sets  his  heart  and  by  the  course  of  conduct  he 
maps  out.  It  may  be  well  enough  to  eat,  drink  and 
be  merry  if  to-morrow  we  die  and  come  to  the  end  of  it 
all.  But  if  the  consequences  'of  our  deeds  and  choices 
here  extend  on  endlessly,  then  life  is  altogether  another 
matter.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  spin  any  clever  theories 
or  to  paint  showy  pictures  as  to  my  guess  about  the 
future.  I  desire  simply  to  talk  with  thoughtful  people 
as  to  the  reasons  upon  which  we  may  intelligently  base 
a  hope  of  immortality. 

"  In  reality  there  are  no  "proofs  of  immortality."  Even 
for  those  of  us  who  accept  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  historical  fact,  this  does  not  prove  that  all 
men,  good  and  bad,  will  rise  again.  Even  the  plain 
^Declarations  of  inspired  men  and  of  Jesus  Himself  are 

(151) 


152  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

\  "not  proofs — they  depend  for  their  force  upon  the  de- 
gree of  moral  faith  which  we  by  our  own  decision  have 
placed  in  them.  Every  one  must  decide  for  himself 
whether  these  speakers  were  in  a  position  to  know, 
whether  they  spoke  truly  and  whether  we  have  a  cor- 
rect account  of  their  words — and  this  decision  carries 
us  into  the  realm  of  moral  faith. 

If  we  should  even  accept  the  silly  claims  of  spiritual- 
ists, who  recently  professed  to  hold  communion  with 
the  departed  spirit  of  John  Sherman  when  the  news- 
papers had  erroneously  announced  his  death,  only  to 
discover  next  morning  that  he  was  still  alive  and  aboard 
ship  instead  of  lending  his  ghostly  presence  to  needy 
seance-holders,  we  should  still  be  no  farther  along.  The 
experiences  of  these  spiritualists,  if  they  were  true, 
would  not  constitute  proof.  The  distinguished  lecturer 
at  Harvard  on  the>rabject  of  immortality  states  this 
point  strongly*--^<Im'mortality,"  he  says,  "is  a  future 
event,  and  as  such  cannot  be  proved.  Even  if  the 
reports  of  the  spiritist  are  accepted  as  authentic,  still 
the  fact  that  some  men  have  survived  death  does  not 
prove  that  all  men  must.  A  flock  of  sheep  come  to  a 
river.  A  number  of  them  swim  safely  across  and  bleat 
to  their  brethren  behind,  telling  them  as  plainly  as  can 
be  that  they  still  live;  nevertheless  the  sheep  who  have 
not  yet  tried  the  river  seem  a  good  deal  excited.  The 
question  with  them  is  not  whether  others  have  survived 
the  beat  and  wash  of  the  stream,  but  whether  they  shall 
survive.  That  is  not  proved  and  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  cannot  be.  An  intelligent  member  of  the  flock, 
having  known  the  weakness  of  many  of  its  brethren  who 
report  that  they  have  safely  crossed  the  flood,  and  wisely 


THE  HOPE  OF  IMMORTALITY.  153 

judging  its  own  superior  strength,  might  feel  comfort- 
ably sure  of  survival.  Spiritism,  even  if  accepted  as 
authentic,  cannot  yield  demonstration.  It  still  leaves 
those  who  have  not  tasted  death  in  the  sphere  of  moral 
faith/'1  From  the  very  necessities  of  the  situation,  there- 
fore, our  belief  in  immortality  cannot  rest  on  proofs,  but 
must  rest  upon  faith  in  certain  considerations.  Perhaps 
it  is  as  well  —  "the  best  things  are  felt  rather  than 
proved." 

But  if  there  are  no  proofs,  there  are  many  strong  war- 
rants for  hope.  Some  of  these  have  been  called  "teleo- 
logical."  Man  was  surely  made  for  some  great  end. 
He  does  not  seem  to  have  attained  it  here,  nor,  owing 
to  bodily  weakness,  decay  and  the  brevity  of  his  earthly 
career,  to  have  had  a  fair  opportunity  for  attaining  it. 
He  dies  with  the  possibility  of  larger  intelligence,  finer 
character,  nobler  soul  life,  all  unreached.  The  real  com- 
pletion of  human  life  which  seems  so  natural  and  neces- 
sary in  a  world  controlled  by  Eeason  would  demand 
existence  after  death  for  its  accomplishment. 

Other  considerations  are  called  "theological."  God 
is  a  moral  being.  He  has  made  man  most  like  Himself 
and  has  deigned  to  call  us  His  children.  He  cannot 
be  God  and  thrust  His  children  back  into  nothingness. 
We  do  not  gather  wood  and  iron,  ropes  and  paint,  and 
build  a  noble  ship  at  great  pains  and  large  expense, 
simply  to  destroy  it.  The  ship  is  meant  for  the  open 
sea  and  for  a  great  voyage.  It  is  unthinkable  that  God 
should  rear  up  intelligent,  obedient  children  only  to 
destroy  them  as  they  approach  their  higher  usefulness. 

i  Geo.  A.  Gordon,  "Immortality  and  the  New  Theodicy,'* 
p.  6. 


154  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

They  too  must  be  meant  for  the  open  sea,  for  the  long 
voyage  and  the  haven  beyond. 

Other  considerations  have  been  named  "analogical." 
There  is  progress  in  the  natural  world;  each  order  of 
life  prepares  the  way  for  a  higher.  Nothing  has  been 
found  higher  than  man.  "In  man  the  Creator  is  in 
affectionate  and  intelligent  connection  with  the  world. 
It  was  not  to  be  ruled  by  power  but  governed  by  love. 
The  response  of  the  world  to  its  Maker  is  from  the 
heart  of  man.  Speaking  after  our  own  manner,  if  God 
is  to  keep  the  world,  He  must  keep  man,  for  he  is  the 
one  point  at  which  God,  who  is  Spirit,  can  enter  the 
world's  life."1  It  appears  incredible  that  God  should  be 
perpetually  destroying  this  single  sensitive  bond  be- 
tween His  created  world  and  Himself,  or  even  allowing 
it  to  fall  into  extinction.  It  would  seem  irrational  to 
suppose  that  creation  stops  short,  offering  men  nothing 
more  than  this  brief  earthly  career  that  we  know.  An- 
alogy would  lead  us  to  expect  that  mortal  man  would 
be  a  preparation  for  the  higher  order  of  life,  for  im- 
mortal man. 

Other  warrants  have  been  named  "historical."  There 
is  good  evidence  for  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 
He  was  the  Son  of  Man,  the  Complete  Man,  the  Repre- 
sentative Man.  He  came  to  show  us  on  a  clean  page 
what  human  life  is.  He  was  born  of  a  woman.  He  in- 
creased gradually  in  stature,  in  wisdom,  in  favor  with 
God  and  man.  He  ate  our  food,  breathed  our  air,  felt 
our  needs,  was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  and 
was  made  perfect  through  suffering  and  experience.  At 
last,  that  He  might  make  plain  the  truth  that  death 

*  Alexander  McKenzie,  "Divine  Force  in  the  Life  of  the 
World,"  p.  63. 


THE  HOPE  OF  IMMORTALITY.  155 

and  resurrection  are  both  items  in  the  program  of  man's 
career,  He  died  and  rose  again.  The  resurrection  of 
this  representative  of  our  race,  therefore,  affords  a  strong 
presumption  in  favor  of  human  immortality. 

And  once  more,  still  other  considerations  are  "psy- 
chological." The  instinct  of  immmortality  is  all  but 
universal. 

"It  must  be  so — Plato,  thou  reasonest  well — 

Else  whence  this  pleasing  hope,  this  fond  desire, 

This  longing  after  immortality? 

Or  whence  this  secret  dread  and  inward  horror 

Of  falling  into  naught?    Why  shrinks  the  soul 

Back  on  herself  and  startles  at  destruction? 

'Tis  the  divinity  that  stirs  within  us: 

?Tis  heaven  itself  that  points  out  an  hereafter, 

And  intimates  eternity  to  man." 

If  men  all  want  to  breathe,  it  argues  that  there  is  air 
for  them.  If  all  hunger,  it  raises  the  prospect  of  food. 
We  find  that  the  Creator  has  sent  none  of  these  native 
universal  desires  on  fools'  errands.  He  has  made  pro- 
vision for  them  all.  "Every  stage  of  enlargement  has 
had  reference  to  actual  existence  outside.  The  eye  was 
developed  in  response  to  the  outward  existence  of  radi- 
ant light:  the  ear  in  response  to  the  outward  existence 
of  acoustic  vibrations:  the  mother's  love  came  in  re- 
sponse to  the  infant's  needs:  everywhere  the  internal 
adjustment  has  been  brought  about  so  as  to  harmonize 
with  some  actually  existing,  eternal  fact."1  If  the 
all  but  universal  idea  and  hope  of  immortality  has  been 
steadily  developed  in  mankind  without  an  actual  reality 
corresponding  to  the  idea,  it  is  the  only  instance  of  that 

1  John  Fiske,  "Through  Nature  to  God,"  p.  189. 


156  THE  MAIN  POINTS. 

kind  on  record.  The  plain  fact  that  all  men  desire  and 
hope  to  live  after  death,  coupled  with  our  confidence  in 
the  integrity  of  our  Maker  already  observed  in  so  many 
fields,  leads  us  to  believe  that  these  expectations  shall 
also  be  fulfilled. 

Weigh  these  five  sets  of  considerations  together!  I 
do  not  offer  them  as  proofs,  but  they  serve  as  substantial 
warrants  for  entertaining  a  strong  hope.  The  convic- 
tion for  or  against  immortality  must  rest  on  some  such 
considerations.  If  we  cannot  prove  that  there  is  im- 
mortality, neither  can  any  one  prove  that  there  is  not. 
Men  are  left  free  to  choose  what  seems  to  them  most 
reasonable.  It  is  well  to  bear  this  plain  truth  ever  in 
mind.  Unbelief  sometimes  poses  as  solid  matter  of  fact 
against  the  theory  and  faith  of  those  who  believe.  In 
reality,  unbelief  too,  is  faith,  though  of  a  negative  sort. 
To  prove  that  the  doctrine  of  immortality  is  entirely 
false,  one  would  have  to  ransack  all  space  and  find  that 
nowhere  is  there  in  existence  a  human  being  who  once 
lived  upon  the  earth.  This  no  man  has  done,  nor  can 
do.  In  denying  immortality,  therefore,  one  is  simply 
resting  his  negative  faith  on  certain  negative  consid- 
erations. Indeed,  this  is  true  of  most  unbelief.  A  man 
to  deny  the  existence  of  God  must  have  penetrated  all 
space  and  have  seen  all  there  is — for  if  any  region  re- 
mains unexplored,  God  may  be  there.  It  would  require 
omniscience  to  say  as  the  fool  said  in  his  heart,  "There 
is  no  God."  To  deny  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  one  must 
know  all  that  has  taken  place  in  the  unseen  world  and 
be  able  to  say  that  no  answer  has  ever  come  to  a  human 
request  directed  Godward.  All  unbelief  that  poses  as 
solid  fact  is  simply  posing  and  is  to  be  treated  accord- 


THE  HOPE   OF  IMMORTALITY.  157 

ingly.  So  the  belief  of  the  refusal  to  believe  in  immor- 
tality must  rest  at  last  on  some  such  considerations  as 
those  named,  and  the  truths  suggested  by  these  five 
lines  of  argument  afford  us  a  strong  basis  whereon  to 
rest  a  firm  and  rational  hope  for  future  life. 

The  instinct  and  desire  for  immortality  are  s'o  'Strong 
that  if  intellectual  objections  are  removed  or  even  dis- 
armed, the  fortunes  of  such  a  faith  may  be  safely  left 
to  the  human  heart.  I  shall  therefore  speak  of  two  of 
the  impediments  that  seem  to  stand  in  the  way  of  such 
a  hope.  Our  inability  to  picture  it  or  to  see  how  life 
continues  after  the  body  has  perished  in  the  swift  con- 
sumption of  the  crematory  or  in  the  slower  processes  of 
the  cemetery  is  one.  Life  seems  to  come  to  an  end.  The 
heart  stops,  the  breath  ceases,  the  eyes  no  longer  see  nor 
do  the  ears  hear;  there  is  no  response  to  any  kind  of 
stimulus.  How  can  life  continue  after  such  a  change 
and  the  consequent  dissolution! 

But  if  we  could  stand  at  any  crucial  -point  in  the 
unfolding  creation  we  should  witness  changes  as  extraor- 
dinary and  involving  as  great  apparent  le^aps.  Take 
the  universe  when,  according  to  certain  'scientific  beliefs, 
it  was  an  unorganized  mass  of  swirling  star  dust!  How 
impossible  seems  the  orderly  system  of  stars,  planets  and 
worlds  we  know  to-day!  Take  the  period  when  this 
solid  earth  was  a  molten  mass  such  as  many  of  you 
have  seen  in  the  crater  of  Kilauea,  on  the  Island  of 
Hawaii.  How  impossible  it  seems  that  there  should 
come  the  verdure,  the  trees,  the  flowers  and  the  count- 
less forms  of  animal  life  we  know,  upon  that  molten 
mass  of  fire!  Life  abundant  on  a  globe  once  lifeless  is 
a  problem  that  baffles  the  scientist.  Take  those  geo- 


158  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

logical  periods  when  the  highest  forms  of  life  on  earth 
were  the  huge  reptiles,  so  gross  and  brutish.  How  im- 
possible it  seems  that  there  should  ever  be  found  here 
a  Shakespeare  or  a  Gladstone!  Advances  have  been 
made  which  we  would  have  deemed  incredible  could  we 
have  stood  as  wondering  witnesses  of  the  preceding  con- 
ditions. In  the  face  then  of  what  has  taken  place,  it 
is  not  hard  to  believe  that  the  Almighty  Creator  has 
in  store  that  still  farther  advance  in  the  scale  of  life, 
which  is  pictured  in  the  Scriptures  as  a  race  of  immortal 
beings  carrying  on  and  completing  the  lives  begun  here. 
We  have  thus  far  known  conscious  personality  only 
in  connection  with  physical  organism,  and  how  the  con- 
sciousness can  survive  the  shock  of  the  physical  changes 
and  destruction  that  death  involves,  proves  a  burden 
serious  to  be  borne  by  many  who  would  believe  but 
who  ask  some  wise  men  to  help  their  unbelief.  It  brings 
us  face  to  face  with  the  whole  mystery  of  mental  and 
moral  life.  A  human  being  is  something  more  than 
a  physical  organism.  There  was  a  time  in  the  history 
of  every  man  when  the  germ  of  life  from  which  he 
subsequently  developed,  could  not  have  been  distin- 
guished under  the  microscope  from  the  germ  of  an  ape 
or  a  dog.  What  made  the  difference?  Something  ap- 
parently that  the  microscope,  adjusted  to  hunt  down 
the  most  minute  particles  of  matter,  cannot  find.  The 
human  being  came  to  have  intellectual  stature,  moral 
life,  humanity,  by  reason  of  some  mysterious  endow- 
ment not  discoverable  in  the  material  organism  at  all 
in  its  early  stages.  It  is  this  something  outside  of  and 
beyond  the  material  structure  which  differentiates  man 
from  the  lower  animals,  and  which  as  we  claim  survives 


THE  HOPE   OF  IMMORTALITY.  159 

the  shock  of  death.  To  affirm  the  truth  of  immortality 
may  seem  to  impose  upon  us  certain  obligations  to  pic- 
ture the  continuance  of  personality  after  the  dissolution 
of  a  physical  organism  which  uniformly  serves  now  as 
its  home,  which  we  cannot  altogether  succeed  in  meet- 
ing. But  to  deny  it  when  we  are  surrounded  with  other 
problems  as  mysterious  and  as  unsolvable  to  our  present 
insight,  involves1  us  in  so  much  greater  intellectual  and 
moral  difficulty  that  the  rational  course  seems  to  be  to 
follow  our  deepest  instinct  and  thus  cherish  and  affirm 
the  hope  of  future  life. 

It  has  been  suggested  by  a  recent  lecturer  that  the 
burden  of  believing  in  immortality  for  such  countless 
hordes  as  live  now  and  as  have  lived  is  also  a  bar  to 
faith.  "The  incredible  and  intolerable  number  of  be- 
ings which  with  our  modern  imagination  we  must  be- 
lieve to  be  immortal,  if  immortality  be  true,  is,  I  can 
not  but  suspect,  a  stumbling-block  to  many."  The  igno- 
rant, the  base,  the  half-savage  among  our  remote  an- 
cestors, the  Hottentots  and  Esquimaux,  why  should  they 
live?  Certain  believers  deliver  themselves  from  this 
embarrassing  question  by  holding  what  is  called  "the 
aristocratic  view  of  immortality" — eternal  life  only  for 
those  who  are  fit  for  it,  and  quiet  extinction  for  the 
rest.  Survival  of  the  fittest  is  the  scientific  way  of 
saying  it  and  conditional  immortality  or  the  annihila- 
tion of  the  unregenerate,  the  theological.  But  the  ma- 
jority of  men,  if  they  believe  in  immortality  at  all, 
propose  to  believe  in  it  for  all.  "Bone  of  our  bone 
and  flesh  of  our  flesh  are  these  half-brutish,  prehis- 
toric brothers.  Girdled  about  with  the  immense  dark- 
ness of  this  mysterious  universe  even  as  we  are,  they 


160  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

were  born,  and  died,  suffered  and  struggled.  Given  over 
to  fearful  crime  and  passion,  plunged  in  the  blackest 
ignorance,  preyed  upon  by  hideous  and  grotesque  delu- 
sions, yet  steadfastly  serving  the  profoundest  of  ideals 
in  their  fixed  faith  that  existence  in  any  form  is  better 
than  non-existence,  they  ever  rescued  triumphantly  from 
the  jaws  of  ever-imminent  destruction  the  torch  of  life, 
which  thanks  to  them  now  lights  the  world  for  us.  How 
small  indeed  seem  individual  distinctions  when  we  look 
back  on  these  overwhelming  numbers  of  human  beings 
panting  and  straining  under  the  pressure  of  that  vital 
want.  And  how  unessential  in  the  eyes  of  God  must 
be  the  small  surplus  of  the  individual's  merit,  swamped 
as  it  is  in  the  vast  ocean  of  the  common  merit  oi 
mankind  dumbly  and  undauntedly  doing  the  funda- 
mental duty  and  living  the  heroic  life.  We  grow  humble 
and  reverent  as  we  contemplate  the  prodigious  spectacle. 
An  immense  compassion  and  kinship  fill  the  heart.  An 
immortality  from  which  these  inconceivable  billions  of 
fellow-strivers  should  be  excluded  becomes  an  irra- 
tional idea  for  us.  That  our  superiority  in  personal  re- 
finement or  in  religious  creed  should  constitute  a  differ- 
ence between  ourselves  and  our  messmates  at  life's 
banquet  fit  to  entail  such  a  consequential  difference  of 
destiny  as  eternal  life  for  us  and  for  them  torment  here- 
after or  death  with  the  beasts  that  perish,  is  a  notion 
too  absurd  to  be  considered  serious."1 

And  besides  all  this  instinct  of  brotherliness,  we  may 
believe  that  God  "has  so  inexhaustible  a  capacity  for 
love  that  his  call  and  need  is  for  a  literally  endless 
accumulation  of  created  lives.  He  can  never  faint  nor 
grow  weary  as  we  should  under  the  increasing  supply. 

1  James,  "Human  Immortality,"  p.  33. 


THE   ROPE   OF  IMMORTALITY.  161 

His  scale  is  infinite  in  all  things.  His  sympathy  can 
never  know  satiety  or  glut.  .  .  .  The  tiresomeness  of  an 
overpeopled  heaven  is  a  purely  subjective  and  illusory 
notion,  a  sign  of  human  incapacity,  a  remnant  of  the 
old,  narrow-hearted  aristocratic  creed.  The  inner  signi- 
ficance of  other  lives  exceeds  all  our  powers  of  sym- 
pathy and  insight.  If  we  feel  a  significance  in  our  own 
life  which  would  lead  us  spontaneously  to  claim  itsi 
perpetuity,  let  us  be  at  least  tolerant  of  like  claims  made 
by  other  lives,  however  numerous,  however  unideal  they 
may  seem  to  us  to  be."1  These  clear,  strong  words 
seem  to  quite  dispose  of  the  objection  to  the  belief  in 
immortality  on  the  ground  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
claim  it  involves.  The  difficulty  was  never  anything 
more  than  an  intellectual  bugaboo  conjured  up  by  the 
thoughtless  to  frighten  the  finite  mind  which  was  in 
simple,  childlike  quest  of  a  hope  to  feed  its  courage. 
These  are  the  supposed  impediments  -most  commonly 
named  as  standing  in  the  way  of  such  a  belief,  and  I  can- 
not see  that  they  offer  any  effective  opposition  to  our 
faith. 

There  are  three  positive  considerations  embodying 
some  of  the  points  already  named  which  have  always 
entered  into  the  discussions  of  this  subject,  and  which 
are  strongly  stated  by  Dr.  Geo.  A.  Gordon  in  his  Harvard 
Lecture  on  Immortality.  First  of  all  we  believe  in  the 
moral  goodness  of  the  Creator.  To  believe  in  Him  at  all 
as  one  worthy  to  be  called  God  and  to  be  worshiped, 
we  must  believe  that  He  is  on  the  side  of  those  whom  He 
has  created,  not  necessarily  to  make  them  constantly 
comfortable  but  to  make  them  righteous.  "God  so  loved 
l  James  "Human  Immortality,"  p.  45. 
The  Main  Points.— 11. 


162  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

the  world  as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son"  stands  as 
the  measure  of  His  moral  interest  in  us.  This  interest 
surely  does  not  cease  as  having  exhausted  itself  or  as  hav- 
ing accomplished  the  utmost  possibilities  of  human  na- 
ture the  moment  the  physical  change  called  death  takes 
place.  God  certainly  does  not  love  me  enough  to  labor 
for  my  redemption  with  pain  and  sacrifice  that  I  cannot 
half  appreciate,  only  to  cast  me  back  into  nothingness 
when  I  die,  lisping  perhaps  His  very  name  in  prayer. 
If  I  should  deny  immortality  I  should  feel  it  incumbent 
on  me  to  deny  also  the  moral  goodness  of  the  Creator. 
"The  mysteries  of  life  are  not  solved  as  yet  by  explana- 
tions but  they  are  relieved  by  acquaintance  with  God 
whom,  when  we  know  Him  aright,  we  can  trust  for- 
ever." Because  He  lives  and  because  He  is  educating 
His  obedient  children  more  and  more  into  His  likeness 
and  image,  they  shall  live  also. 

The  reasonableness  of  the  universe  is  the  second  con- 
sideration. When  all  goes  well  with  us,  our  health 
good,  our  loved  ones  about  us,  our  business  prosperous, 
all  our  faculties  keen  and  active,  life  itself,  here  and 
now  with  no  future  expectations,  is  a  beautiful,  joyous 
thing:  it  seems  to  call  for  nothing  more  to  make  the 
universe  that  sustains  it  reasonable.  But  these  condi- 
tions do  not  last  straight  through  for  the  happiest  of 
us.  Consider  the  amount  of  disappointment,  pain,  strug- 
gle, trial,  failure,  even  within  the  reach  of  your  own 
thought  at  this  moment.  Incurable  ill  health,  the 
taking  away  of  loved  ones  in  the  full  beauty  and  promise 
of  their  maturing  lives,  the  utter  defeat  of  some  of 
our  noblest  plans,  the  wither  and  blight  that  steadily 
comes  upon  our  powers!  Life  without  a  future  state  of 


THE  ROPE  OF  IMMORTALITY.  163 

existence  to  justify  and  explain  the  weight  of  problem* 
left  upon  our  hands  here,  would  be  in  numberless  cases 
a  meaningless  tragedy.  Move  out  beyond  our  pleasant 
surroundings  in  this  Christian  land!  Think  of  the 
million  famine-stricken  peasants  in  Russia  on  the  bor- 
ders of  starvation,  subsisting  on  chopped  grass  and 
roots!  Think  of  the  multitudes  suffering  and  dying  by 
reason  of  the  famine  and  the  plague  in  India!  Think 
of  the  poverty  in  China  as  a  result  of  flood  and  famine, 
where  the  hunger-stricken  men  and  women  sought  to 
dig  the  rice  out  of  the  ground  where  it  had  been  planted, 
that  they  might  eat  it  raw,  and  had  to  be  kept  from 
rice  plantations  by  soldiers  until  the  grains  had 
sprouted!  Think  of  the  earnest,  even  if  misguided  Fili- 
pinos, hunted  like  animals  through  their  jungles  and 
forests,  and  shot  to  death  by  the  bullets  of  a  stronger 
and  more  prosperous  foe!  If  the  universe  is  reasonable 
as  we  must  conclude  when  we  announce  our  faith  in  a 
Reasonable  Creator,  there  must  be  more  'of  it  than  what 
is  now  in  sight.  Therefore  our  firm  conviction  that 
this  universe  is  a  reasonable  one  demands  the  hope  of 
immortality  for  its  own  validity. 

A  third  consideration  is  that  taken  from  the  revealed 
and  recognized  worth  of  human  life.  So  far  as  we  can 
learn  there  is  nothing  higher  than  man  save  God  Him- 
self. When  the  Son  of  God  came  on  earth  He  came 
as  a  man.  The  value  and  possibilities  of  this  human 
life  are  surely  not  exhausted  in  our  three-score  years 
and  ten.  How  short  a  century  is.  How  brief  a  time  it 
seems  as  we  look  back  upon  the  period  between  1400 
and  1300  B.  C.,  and  yet  within  that  time  two  genera- 
tions came  and  went.  God  has  placed  a  high  estimate 


164  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

upon  the  worth  of  human  life  .in  making  a  world  full  of 
moral  stimulus,  and  it  would  seem  to  confuse  if  not  to 
deny  all  that  He  has  done,  to  think  that  when  men  have 
taken  a  few  short  steps  toward  their  perfection,  He  de- 
stroys them  or  suffers  them  to  perish  Like  the  gnats  of  a 
day.  "The  Son  of  Man  gave  Himself  not  to  perfect 
seventy  years,  but  to  perfect  life.  He  restored  man  be- 
cause man  was  to  live."  Each  human  life  has  such  value' 
in  itself  that  He  will  maintain  it  in  existence  until  every 
effort  be  exhausted  to  bring  it  up  to  its  full  perfection. 
Thus  the  very  value  that  the  Creator  sets  upon  our  hu- 
man life  becomes  a  strong  ground  for  an  undying  hope 
of  future  existence. 

This  brings  me  to  what  I  want  to  say  most  of  all. 
The  considerations  named  last,  the  sense  of  GTod's  moral 
goodness,  the  conviction  that  we  live  in  a  rational  uni- 
verse, and  a  true  appreciation  of  the  value  of  human 
life  itself,  are  the  result  of  intellectual  and  moral  experi- 
ences of  the  finer  sort.  "The  apparent  futility  that 
has  'attended  all  efforts  to  prove  the  immortality  of 
man  springs  largely  from  the  fact  that  a  sense  of  im- 
mortality is  an  achievement  in  morals  and  not  an 
inference  drawn  by  logical  processes  from  the  nature 
of  things."1  As  you  come  to  know  God  through  trust, 
obedience  and  prayer,  you  can  say  "I  know  whom  I  have 
believed  and  I  am  persuaded  that  He  will  keep  in  exist- 
ence that  which  I  have  committed  unto  Him.  Because 
He  lives  I  shall  live  also."  As  you  move  out  and  look 
at  life,  large  and  whole,  you  become  persuaded  of  the 
solid  reasonableness  of  all  that  He  has  wrought  when 
the  facts  are  entirely  in,  and  of  your  own  essential  and 

l  T.  T.  Munger,  "The  Appeal  to  Life,"  p.  247. 


THE  ROPE   OF  IMMORTALITY.  165 

necessary  relationship  to  this  universe.  You  are  moved 
to  say  "I  am  persuaded  that  neither  life,  nor  death,  nor 
angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present, 
nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  As  you  feel 
within  yourself  the  essential  worth  of  your  own  life 
and  as  you  are  impelled  to  put  increasing  estimates  upon 
it  as  a  result  of  the  divine  grace  wrought  into  it,  you 
say,  "Already  we  are  the  sons  of  God  and  it  doth  not 
yet  appear  what  we  shall  be;  but  we  know  that  we  shall 
be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 

These  are  the  considerations  I  would  chiefly  urge 
upon  those  who  find  difficulty  in  holding  a  clear,  firm 
hope  of  immortality.  Thds  was  the  method  of  Jesus.  He 
did  not  persuade  men  of  the  truth  of  the  future  life  by 
explaining  apparent  difficulties  nor  by  giving  them,  even 
upon  His  own  high  authority,  the  details  as  to  our 
future  state.  There  was  a  noble  reserve  about  Him  who 
knew  as  we  cannot  know,  which  those  who  talk  so  glibly 
and  confidently  about  what  is  in  store  for  us,  about 
Heaven  and  about  Hell  and  the  comparative  populations 
of  each,  would  do  well  to  imitate.  He  filled  men  with 
love  and  trust  in  the  Heavenly  Father,  pointed  out  the 
unity  and  reasonableness  of  the  world,  which  in  all  its 
humbler  forms  was  full  of  spiritual  suggestion  to  Him, 
and  brought  out  the  real  value  of  the  human  life.  He 
abolished  death  as  the  end  of  human  existence,  by  thus 
bringing  life  to  light.  Men  came  to  think  of  death 
simply  as  a  mark  in  the  road  over  which  the  full  tide 
of  life,  in  which  they  had  come  to  snare,  bore  them  in 
glad  progress. 


166  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

The  consciousness  of  eternal  life  as  a  present  pos- 
session then  is  the  surest  ground  upon  which  to  rest  our 
hope.  A  clear,  strong  trust  in  immortality  springs  not 
so  much  from  purely  intellectual  considerations  as  from 
the  spiritual  quality  of  the  life  thait  cherishes  it.  In 
proportion  as  we  become  fit  to  live  forever,  we  feel 
sure  that  we  shall.  "The  more  deeply  man  knows  him- 
self a  child  of  God,  the  more  probahle  becomes  his  sur- 
vival of  death  and  his  complete  perfection."1  By 
moral  experience  the  sons  of  God  attain  their  confi- 
dence touching  the  future.  The  best  and  purest  men 
have  consequently  been  the  ones  who  have  given  most 
confident  testimony.  It  has  been  the  utterance  of  the 
race  at  its  best  and  not  in  its  lower  dregs  of  igno- 
rance and  wickedness  that  has  claimed  this  perpetuity. 
Humanity  at  its  best  estate,  at  the  point  where  it  is 
likest  God,  speaks  in  favor  of  immortality.  This  joyous 
affirmation  is  more  than  a  mere  human  hope;  it  is  the 
echo  of  God's  own  voice;  it  is  the  testimony  of  His  chil- 
dren who,  by  loving  communion  with  the  Father,  have 
come  into  an  abiding  sense  of  their  own  eternal  life. 

i  George  Harris,  "Moral  Evolution,"  p.  423. 


X. 

THE  LAST  JUDGMENT. 

The  question  as  to  how  the  just  and  the  unjust  will 
fare  in  the  world  to  come  is  an  inquiry  that  is  both 
serious  and  inevitable  for  any  reflecting  mind.  There 
are  three  traditional  views  which  practically  cover  the 
ground  of  the  conclusions  to  which  sober-minded  men 
have  come,  as  to  the  final  result  of  the  moral  and  re- 
demptive processes  that  we  see  at  work. 

First,  it  is  believed  that  at  death  all  men  are  divided 
into  two  classes,  in  one  of  which  souls  enter  upon  un- 
speakable and  unending  bliss,  and  in  the  other,  upon, 
terrible  and  endless  torment.  This  view  rests  mainly 
for  its  support  upon  the  passage  in  Matthew  where  men 
are  divided  like  sheep  and  goats,  the  righteous  enter- 
ing upon  the  acceptance  and  rewards  of  life  eternal, 
and  the  evil  meeting  with  the  rejection  and  penalties 
of  everlasting  punishment  prepared  for  the  devil  and 
his  angels:  and  upon  that  clear  division  and  fixity  of 
condition  pictured  in  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus.  It  has  been  preached,  however,  with  an  of- 
fensiveness  of  detail  that  was  entirely  unlike  the  digni- 
fied reserve  of  the  Scriptures  themselves. 

The  scriptural  warrants  for  such  a  belief  are  not 
many,  nor  are  they  entirely  conclusive  in  the  face  of 
other  passages  which  make  against  it:  and  the  difficulties 

(18T) 


168  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

in  the  way  of  holding  such  a  conviction  are  so  great, 
that  it  may  be  doubted  if  any  considerable  number  of 
the  more  thoughtful  members  of  our  evangelical 
churches  really  do  hold  it.  They  may  give  formal  as- 
sent to  creeds  where  it  stands  by  implication  or  per- 
haps by  direct  statement;  they  may  not  utter  any  open 
formal  repudiation  of  it  as  an  article  of  faith;  but  as 
a  real  thing,  for  humanity  as  they  know  it,  as  a  con- 
viction to  be  carried  into  the  home  and  with  unsparing, 
unflinching  honesty  applied  to  such  of  their  own  loved 
ones  as  may  have  died,  not  in  outrageous  wickedness, 
but  surely  in  an  unregenerate  state  according  to  the 
most  charitable  construction  of  evangelical  standards, 
many  of  them  do  not  as  a  matter  of  fact  believe  it. 

It  would  be  strange  if  it  should  turn  out  to  be  true. 
It  would  mean  that  while  a  law  of  variety  obtains  here, 
something  very  like  a  law  of  monotony  obtains  there;  a 
million  different  conditions  for  men  here,  but  only  two 
there.  If  it  be  replied  that  heaven  may  be  one  of  de- 
grees and  hell  also  a  state  of  degrees,  then  the  lowest 
states  of  heaven  and  the  milder  conditions  of  hell  cannot 
be  more  than  a  step  removed.  A  rational  conception  of 
the  future  universe  seems  to  be  saved  by  this  shift,  but 
the  old  doctrine  of  Heaven  and  Hell  with  a  great  gulf 
fixed  between  the  two  extremes,  the  bliss  of  Abraham's 
bosom  for  all  the  accepted  and  burning  torments  for 
all  the  rejected,  is  gone. 

The  notion  of  this  division  into  two  states  with  an  in- 
finite difference  between  them  is  based  largely  on  the  use 
of  two  words — the  righteous  went  into  "life,"  the 
wicked  into  "punishment."  And  yet  how  endlessly  va- 
ried a  thing  is  "life."  How  much  it  means  for  an  intel- 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  169 

ligent,  developed,  mature  Christian,  how  little  it  means 
for  the  feeble,  ignorant,  half-hearted  Christian  who  nev- 
ertheless clings  to  the  hope  of  mercy.  And  "punish- 
ment"— you  and  I  have  endured  it.  In  certain  conse- 
quences of  our  disobedience  we  are  enduring  punishment 
now.  The  murderer  also  endured  punishment  on  the 
gallows  yonder  at  San  Quentin  on  Friday.  So  the  use 
of  these  two  words  might  introduce  the  law  of  variety 
and  make  as  many  heavens  and  as  many  hells  as  there 
might  be  individual  states  of  character.  Judas  "went  to 
his  own  place,"  we  are  told,  and  so  every  man  might 
likewise  go  to  his  own  place. 

The  apparent  moral  impossibility  of  separating  men 
into  just  two  classes  between  which  an  infinite  gulf 
should  yawn  makes  such  a  belief  difficult.  Such  dis- 
crimination, so  far  as  we  can  see,  could  not  be  based  on 
the  degree  of  moral  development.  We  can  test  ships  by 
fixed  standards,  and  if  they  fall  to  make  so  many  knots 
an  hour,  reject  them.  Men,  however,  cannot  be  accepted 
or  rejected,  cannot  be  set  apart  as  innocent  or  guilty, 
in  such  rough  and  ready  fashion.  The  degree  of  moral 
attainment  depends  on  environment,  heredity  and  edu- 
cation for  which  men  are  not  always  responsible.  The 
poor,  superstitious,  ignorant  Chinese,  living  with  a  high 
degree  of  fidelity  to  the  best  light  he  has,  may  be  in 
moral  attainment  far  below  an  intelligent  college  pro- 
fessor: while  on  the  other  hand,  the  superior  professor, 
if  measured  by  his  fidelity  to  his  wider,  nobler  ideals, 
might  be  outclassed  by  the  Chinese.  To  meet  this  diffi- 
culty, it  is  suggested  that  men  will  be  judged  according 
to  their  faithfulness  to  the  light  they  had  by  a  kind  of 
sliding  scale.  This  has  a  show  of  justice,  but  it  would 


170  THE    MAIN   POINTS. 

produce  singular  results.  Men  who  were  not  very  good 
but  who  had  evinced  a  considerable  degree  of  fidelity 
to  the  glimmer  of  moral  truth  they  had  would  be  in 
heaven,  and  men  more  nearly  in  conformity  in  every 
way  to  the  ten  commandments  and  to  the  precepts  of 
Jesus,  but  who  perhaps  had  not  been  quite  so  zealous  in 
bringing  all  their  conduct  into  harmony  with  those  high 
and  searching  requirements,  might  be  in  hell.  And 
in  that  event  hell  would  contain  many  people  who  were 
better  than  some  of  those  in  heaven. 

The  confusion  that  comes  when  we  try  to  state  our 
belief  regarding  these  two  fixed  states  arises  not  alone 
from  the  incompleteness  of  our  knowledge  of  men's 
hearts.  God  knows  all,  but  it  would  seem  to  be  im- 
possible even  for  absolute  knowledge  to  draw  such  a 
line,  as  to  divide  all  men  in  all  the  shades  of  goodness 
and  badness  into  just  two  companies,  between  whom 
forever  after  an  infinite  difference  of  allotment  should 
stand.  Men  cannot  be  pronounced  "guilty"  or  "not 
guilty"  with  no  possible  third  verdict,  on  the  total  find- 
ing, as  they  might  be  on  some  specific  charge.  They 
are  guilty  of  some  things,  innocent  of  others.  And 
Paul  says  that  we  are  to  be  judged  "according  to  the 
deeds  done  in  the  body" — the  decision  is  "founded  upon 
an  estimate  of  character  as  illustrated  and  proved  by 
conduct." 

The  claim  is  sometimes  made,  apparently  in  rejec- 
tion of  Paul's  basis  of  judgment,  as  just  quoted,  and  in 
rejection  of  that  of  Jesus,  who  pictured  the  awards  as 
resting  upon  men's  faithfulness  or  unfaithfulness  to  the 
demands  made  upon  them  for  humane  service,  that  we 
are  not  judged  upon  our  conduct,  but  upon  the  fact  aa 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  171 

to  whether  we  have  or. have  not  accepted  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  Saviour.  But  what  is  meant  by  "accepting"  Him? 
It  surely  means  to  trust  in  the  mercy  He  reveals,  and 
then  by  the  grace  and  help  He  gives,  to  strive  to  do  the 
will  of  God.  The  sincerity  and  reality  of  a  man's  ac- 
ceptance of  Christ  is  to  be  judged  by  his  endeavor  to 
do  that  will  of  God:  that  is,  by  his  conduct.  That 
was  what  Jesus  said,  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them:  not  every  one  that  saith  unto  Me,  'Lord,  Lord/ 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  Paul's 
contention,  therefore,  that  we  are  judged  according  to 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  is  in  plain  agreement  both 
with  the  words  of  his  Master  and  with  all  that  is  implied 
in  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith. 

The  whole  trend  of  the  New  Testament  indeed  is  to 
that  effect.  The  sheep  and  the  goats  stood  respectively 
for  the  people  who  were  humane  and  for  those  who 
were  selfish  or  inhuman:  "those  who  have  done  the 
works  of  love  out  of  a  free,  uncalculating  heart"  are  ac- 
cepted, and  those  who  have  had  no  disposition  to  render 
such  service  are  rejected.  The  wise  virgins  were  ac- 
cepted because  they  had  done  their  duty  in  social  ser- 
vice, and  the  foolish  ones  were  shut  out  because  they 
had  carelessly  failed  to  do  theirs.  The  five-talent  man 
was  rewarded  because  'he  had  used  his  powers  as  he 
was  bidden,  and  the  one-talent  man  was  cast  into  the 
outer  darkness  because  he  had  failed  to  make  that  right- 
eous1 use  of  his  more  modest  ability.  The  rich  man's 
beliefs  or  unbeliefs  are  not  referred  to  in  the  parable — 
indeed,  belief  except  as  we  see  the  fruits  of  it  in  conduct 
is  never  brought  into  any  scene  of  judgment  portrayed 


172  THE   MAIN  POINTS. 

by  our  Lord — his  destiny  is  made  to  turn  upon  his  con- 
duct: it  was  clearly  wrong  for  him  to  allow  a  poor,  sick 
man  to  starve  and  die  at  his  gate,  and  for  that  inhu- 
manity he  was  punished.  Deeds  and  conduct  are  the 
criterions  everywhere.  Belief  is  saving  in  that  it  is  a 
means  to  that  end,  just  as  a  woodman's  axe  is  a  means 
to  an  end.  We  do  not  judge  him  by  the  sharpness,  the 
size  or  the  shape  of  his  axe,  but  by  the  wood  he  cuts. 
We  judge  men  not  by  the  size,  the  polish,  the  steel-like 
strength  and  sharpness  of  their  creeds,  but  by  the  con- 
duct that  these  opinions  aid  them  in  showing  to  the 
world.  In  considering  this  question  of  judgment,  then, 
we  must  hold  fast  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  of  Paul 
that  men  are  judged  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body,  and  not  try  by  any  theological  makeshift  to  trans- 
fer the  stress  of  judgment  to  some  easier  quarter. 

Now,  on  the  basis  of  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  it 
is  hard  to  adjust  this  first  theory  of  judgment  so  that 
it  will  divide  all  men  into  just  two  classes  at  death,  one 
destined  to  endless  bliss  and  the  other  to  endless  tor- 
ment. It  makes  a  lame  showing  even  in  the  region  of 
abstract  theology,  and  when  we  attempt  to  fill  it  in 
with  concrete  lives  the  embarrassment  increases.  A  cer- 
tain popular  lecturer  used  to  put  this  illustration  before 
the  unthinking  with  telling  effect.  An  evil-minded  man 
goes  in  to  rob  a  bank.  He  shoots  the  cashier,  the  teller 
and  the  bookkeeper,  before  they  have  time  to  resist.  He 
robs  the  bank,  but  is  afterward  caught,  tried  for  his 
crime,  and  sentenced  to  be  hung.  The  men  in  the  bank 
whom  he  killed  were  honest,  worthy  men,  taking  care 
of  their  customers'  interests  with  fidelity,  kind  men  in 
their  homes  and  useful  citizens,  but  none  of  them  had 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  173 

ever  made  a  profession,  of  religion;  none  of  them  could 
be  called  regenerate  according  to  evangelical  standards. 
Each  had  a  vague  purpose  of  coming  sometime  into 
closer  and  more  vital  relations  with  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  yet  without  being  utterly  and  hopelessly  bad 
each  had  postponed  it  until  without  a  moment's  warn- 
ing or  opportunity  to  breathe  any  sort  of  prayer,  he 
was  shot  down  at  his  post  of  duty,  and  went  to  his 
eternal  account.  The  murderer  who  killed  them  had 
time  in  the  penitentiary,  after  he  was  sentenced  and 
before  'his  execution,  to  repent,  to  believe  on  the  Saviour, 
and  to  accept  the  offices  of  the  priest  who  served  as 
chaplain  and  gave  him  in  due  form  the  absolution  and 
blessing  of  the  Church.  He  received  the  sacrament  and 
died  in  all  the  odor  of  sanctity  that  such  experiences 
can  confer.  And  then  the  lecturer  used  to  say,  "You 
tell  me  that  this  murderer  swung  off  the  gallows  into 
everlasting  glory  and  looked  over  the  safe  battlements 
of  heaven  and  saw  in  the  place  of  lament  and  pain 
below,  the  three  men  he  had  suddenly  shot  down  in 
their  unregenerate  state?"  The  fallacy  is  of  course  ap- 
parent, but  it  held  enough  of  truth  to  set  many  unin- 
structed  people  in  opposition  to  what  they  supposed  was 
the  religion  of  Jesus.  It  is  a  sufficiently  adequate  illus- 
tration of  the  difficulties  involved  in  certain  traditional 
theories  to  make  us  all  chary  of  outlining  in  detail  a 
future  judgment  based  on  the  notion  of  a  separation 
at  death  of  all  the  race  into  the  two  states,  between 
which  should  yawn  forever  the  impassable  and  infinite 
gulf. 

The  second  traditional  view  is  that  of  universalism. 
As  it  is  preached  now  it  does  not  mean  that  all  men 


174  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

are  punished  for  their  evil  doing  in  this  life  and  that 
when  they  die  they  all  go  at  once  to  heaven.  This  crude 
form  of  universalism  current  a  century  ago  has  been 
abandoned.  The  modern  form  of  it  is  that  all  men  reap 
what  they  have  sown  according  to  a  justice  which  allows 
no  slips.  All  wrongdoing  will  be  punished  both  here 
and  hereafter,  but  always  with  reference  to  the  correc- 
tion of  the  wrongdoer.  Retribution  works  in  the  in- 
terests of  divine  grace,  and  the  hard  experiences  it 
brings  serve  to  accomplish  what  gentler  treatment  did 
not  achieve.  Hell  therefore  is  not  a  place  of  endless, 
hopeless  doom,  but  a  reformatory  school.  As  men  are 
led  by  the  fiery  rebukes  and  chastisements  of  God  to 
repent,  to  accept  His  mercy,  and  to  form  purposes  of 
living  new  lives,  they  are  pardoned  out.  At  last,  be- 
cause God  is  greater  than  sinful  men,  because  where 
sin  abounds  grace  does  much  more  abound,  and  because 
his  persuasions  to  righteousness  are  simply  inexhausti- 
ble and  must  therefore  be  finally  successful,  all  men 
•will  be  saved  by  being  reclaimed  to  holiness. 

It  derives  its  scriptural  support  from  such  passages 
as  the  parable  of  the  lost  sheep,  where  the  Good  Shep- 
herd is  represented  as  going  out  after  the  lost  sheep 
"until  he  finds  it/'  He  does  not  return  without  it. 
Jesus  also  says,  "If  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth  I  will 
draw  all  men  unto  Me."  He  thus  expresses  his  confi- 
dent hope  of  the  complete  success  of  His  undertaking 
to  save  the  world.  The  expression  "everlasting"  or 
rather  "age-long  punishment"  is  understood  to  mean 
a  process  of  chastisement  which  as  a  process  endures 
throughout  the  whole  age  or  dispensatien  of  judgment, 
but  which  as  to  any  individual  soul  is  not  endkss.  And 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  175 

this  contention  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  word 
translated  "punishment"  means  literally  "pruning" — 
the  removing  of  the  crooked  or  fruitless  branches  and 
the  restoration  of  the  tree  to  its  best  self.  The  fact 
that  Jesus  is  described  as  "the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world"  is  also  urged  as  indicating 
complete  success  and  as  being  entirely  inapplicable  to 
one  who  fails  with  half  the  human  race. 

Many  of  Paul's  texts  are  favorites,  too,  with  the  de- 
fenders of  this  view.  "As  in  Adam  all  die,  so  in  Christ 
shall  all  be  made  alive" — the  effects  of  redemption  to 
be  as  universal  as  the  effects  of  transgression.  Paul 
says  that  "Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  especially  of 
them  that  believe."  He  speaks  of  a  time  when  "every 
knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue  confess  that  Jesus  is 
Lord  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things 
under  the  earth":  and  inasmuch  as  we  are  told  in  an- 
other place  that  "no  man  can  say  Jesus  is  Lord  except 
in  the  Holy  Ghost,"  this  seems  to  indicate  a  universe 
redeemed,  with  no  outlying  portions  still  in  rebellion. 
Paul  says  again,  "it  pleased  the  Father  that  in  Him 
should  all  fullness  dwell,  and  having  made  peace  through 
the  blood  of  the  cross,  by  Him  to  reconcile  all 
things  unto  Himself;  by  Him  I  say  whether  they  be 
things  in  earth  or  things  in  heaven."  This  is  certainly  a 
picture  of  a  universe  where  the  work  of  restoration  is 
complete. 

Peter  also  speaks  of  "the  times  of  restitution  or  resto- 
ration of  all  things."  The  author  of  Revelation  pre- 
dicts the  time  when  "every  creature  which  is  in  heaven, 
and  on  the  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  and  such  as  are  in 
the  sea,  and  all  that  are  in  them,  shall  worship  saying, 


176  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

Blessing  and  honor  and  glory  and  power  be  unto  him 
that  sitteth  upon  the  throne  and  unto  the  Lamb  for- 
ever and  forever."  The  whole  creation  of  sentient  be- 
ings is  worshiping  God  and  paying  honor  unto  the 
completed  process  of  redemption. 

If  I  were  a  root  and  branch  Calvinist,  or  a  modern 
determinist,  which  amounts  to  almost  the  same  thing, 
I  should  certainly  be  a  universalist.  If  I  held  that  God 
elects,  chooses,  and  wills  certain  men  to  be  saved,  and 
does  save  whomsoever  He  will,  I  should  certainly  be- 
lieve that  He  would  save  them  all.  But  salvation  de- 
pends on  human  choice.  Salvation  is  the  attainment 
of  holy  character  which  can  result  only  where  men  de- 
cide to  give  themselves  to  the  pursuit  of  holiness.  If 
salvation  were  accomplished  by  putting  all  men  into  a 
certain  comfortable  place  called  heaven,  the  sheer  Al- 
mightiness  of  God  could  attend  to  it.  But  since  salva- 
tion is  godly  character,  to  be  developed  by  human 
choices,  we  cannot  affirm  confidently  that  all  men  in  this 
world,  or  in  any  world,  will  choose  it.  The  facts 
around  us  do  not  warrant  such  a  high  claim.  God  has 
entreated  men;  Christ  lived  for  them,  taught  for  them, 
died  for  them;  the  Holy  Spirit  stands  at  every  door  and 
knocks,  and  yet  men  intentionally  and  willfully  choose 
unholiness  and  live  in  it.  We  stand  amazed  at  the  aw- 
ful power  a  man  has  to  say  to  the  Almighty  Himself,  "I 
will  not."  So  we  have  no  sufficient  warrant  for  saying 
that  all  men  will  finally  choose  holiness  and  consequent 
happiness  when  the  great  record  of  their  choices  open 
to  our  inspection  shows  to  such  an  extent  the  choice  of 
unholiness. 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  177 

Further  than  that,  the  universalist  view  is  in  contra- 
diction to  many  plain  statements  of  Christ.  He  spoke 
of  irremediable  moral  failure.  He  pictured  it  by  refer- 
ring to  fruitless  trees  cut  down  and  cast  into  the  fire; 
chaff  separated  from  the  wheat,  swept  up,  and  burned. 
In  such  event  the  day  of  opportunity  for  the  fruitless 
tree  or  the  chaff  seemed  to  be  over.  Unfaithful  men 
were  also  cast  into  outer  darkness  and  the  door  was  shut, 
with  no  mention  made  of  future  opening.  Men  who 
built  their  hous'es  on  the  sands  of  ungodliness  found 
that  such  houses  were  thrown  down  by  the  elements 
that  came  to  test  them,  and  were  then  swept  away  with- 
out remedy.  The  selfish  man  who  had  lived  inhumanly 
found  himself  separated  from  the  objects  of  his  desire 
by  a  great  and  fixed  gulf.  Of  a  certain  man  who  com- 
mitted grievous  wrong,  the  tender-hearted  Saviour  said, 
"It  had  been  good  for  that  man  if  he  had  not  been 
born,"  which,  in  the  event  of  his  final  restoration  to 
holiness  and  to  a  consequent  eternity  of  happiness,  could 
not  have  been  true.  In  the  face  of  these  plain  declara- 
tions then,  attractive  and  winning  as  is  the  view  of  an 
"eternal  hope"  and  a  final  success  for  every  soul  born 
into  the  world,  I  cannot  believe  that  it  has  -sufficient 
foundations.  The  wide  region  of  failure  in  the  physi- 
cal world  seems  to  find  a  counterpart  in  the  moral  fail- 
ure of  which  the  Scriptures  speak  solemnly,  and  against 
which  Jesus,  with  all  His  optimism,  warned  men,  urg- 
ing them  repeatedly  to  strive  as  those  who  would  enter 
in  at  a  strait  gate. 

We  come  then  to  the  third  view,  that  of  conditional 
immortality,  or  the  annihilation  of  the  unregenerate. 
This  is  the  "aristocratic  view  of  immortality."  Accord- 
The  Main  Points.— 12 


178  TEE   MAIN   POINTS. 

ing  to  it,  endless  life  is  held  out  as  a  prize  to  be  gained. 
Those  who  become  Christians  in  this  world  inherit  eter- 
nal life,  and  all  the  rest  are  simply  blotted  out.  This 
view  is  held  by  the  Adventists,  by  some  other  small  sects, 
and  by  individual  Christians  here  and  there  in  many  of 
our  churches.  It  rests  on  two  classes  of  Scripture  pas- 
sages. First,  those  cited  by  universalists  to  show  that 
righteousness  will  some  day  be  universal,  with  no  outly- 
ing regions  of  sin  and  pain,  which  passages  seem  to  ex- 
clude the  idea  of  unending  punishment;  and  second, 
those  that  represent  the  sinner  as  being  naturally  a  mor- 
tal being,  simply  capable  of  receiving  immortality 
through  his  union  with  Christ,  and  which  state  that 
death  will  be  the  penalty  for  those  who  are  not  united  to 
Christ.  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but  the  gift  of  God 
SB  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  "God  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  might  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life/'  "He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life,  and 
he  that  hath  not  the  Son  hath  not  life"  The  passages 
also  that  speak  of  a  "second  death"  are  urged. 

It  is  further  supported  by  certain  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical considerations.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  sim- 
ply the  scientific  doctrine  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
carried  over  into  the  moral  world  and  dressed  in  eccle- 
siastical phrases.  The  strong  in  righteousness  and  faith 
survive;  those  who  are  weak  in  these  moral  elements  go 
to  the  wall  and  perish.  The  philosophical  claim  is  to 
the  effect  that  evil  limits  men.  As  they  persist  in 
wrong  they  grow  constantly  smaller  and  have  lees 
and  less  significance  for  a  moral  universe.  This  less- 
ening process  goes  on  until  the  nature  becomes  a 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  179 

mere  infinitesimal  point  without  relations  to  sustain  it 
in  being,  and  it  therefore  drops  out.  "Loss  of  personal 
existence  is  the  natural  end  of  a  life,  in  which  sin  runs 
its  full  course  and  brings  forth  its  full  fruit:  a  man  sins 
on  and  gradually  reduces  himself,  by  the  disuse  and  ex- 
tinguishment of  power  after  power,  to  nonentity."  Thi? 
doctrine  thus  introduces  something  of  the  competitive 
principle  as  a  spur  to  moral  effort,  and  offers  eternal 
life  as  a  privilege  to  be  gained  by  those  who  make  the 
adequate  endeavor. 

This  view  seems  more  humane  than  the  first,  and,  in  a 
world  where  failure  is  so  common,  more  reasonable  and 
likely  than  the  second.  I  have  no  serious  quarrel  with 
those  who  hold  it  as  an  interesting  theory.  I  do  object 
when  they  urge  it  upon  me  dogmatically  as  the  one 
view  taught  in  Scripture.  It  is  not  that.  Scripture 
can  be  quoted  for  it,  as  indeed  it  may  be  quoted  for 
both  the  first  and  the  second  views.  But  it  also  has 
against  it  many  passages  which  teach  a  contrary  view. 
It  errs  in  using  Scripture  with  an  unnatural  literalness. 
"Eternal  life"  is  not,  according  to  the  definition  of 
Jesus,  or  the  prevailing  use  of  the  phrase  throughout 
the  New  Testament,  "mere  continuance  of  being:  it  is 
enriched  and  elevated  being,  as  worthy  and  glorious  as 
it  is  endless."  The  word  "death,"  as  used  in  many 
passages,  is  by  no  means  synonymous  with  extinction — 
this  is  clearly  indicated  where  the  father  spoke  of  the 
prodigal  son  as  having  been  "lost  and  dead."  The 
rough  and  ready  way  in  which  great  masses  of  our  fel- 
low beings  are  handed  over  to  destruction  by  this  view, 
because  they  have  not  made  such  attainments  in  right- 
eousness as  we  have  made,  or  because  they  have  not 


ISO  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

been  led  to  accept  the  gift  of  eternal  life,  so  little  under- 
stood by  any  of  us,  also  gives  a  shock  to  our  moral  na- 
tures. This  belief  seems  to  relegate  to  extinction  the 
heathen  who  have  not  received  eternal  life  in  Christ, 
and  who  from  the  situation  in  which  they  found  them- 
selves have  never  had  opportunity  to  receive  it.  Thus 
from  Scripture,  from  moral  reason  and  from  the  claims 
of  Christian  humanity,*so  many  opposing  considerations 
arise  that  I  cannot  enroll  myself  as  a  positive  believer 
in  the  annihilation  of  the  unregenerate. 

If  no  one  of  these  three  views  then  can  be  held  dog- 
matically against  all  comers,  what  shall  we  say?  Where 
shall  a  reasonable  Christian  stand?  It  seems  to  me  the 
true  position  is  about  here:  It  does  not  seem  to  'have 
pleased  God  to  reveal  to  us  anything  like  a  precise  pro- 
gram of  the  future  world.  Beyond  the  clear  and 
powerful  sanctions  for  righteousness  and  the  solemn 
warnings  against  ungodliness,  afforded  by  our  knowl- 
edge of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments, 
where  each  shall  meet  its  appropriate  desert,  He  seems 
to  have  felt  that  for  His  immature  children  one  world 
at  a  time  was  enough.  Our  attempts  to  bring  all  the 
passages  of  Scripture  bearing  upon  the  outcome  of  the 
moral  processes  now  at  work,  into  line  with  either  of 
the  three  traditional  views,  fails,  and  must  fail,  for  no 
one  definite  program  has  been  outlined.  Any  defi- 
nite theory  about  the  final  issues  of  the  future  world  is 
compelled  to  support  itself  by  partial  use  of  Scripture. 
It  draws  its1  conclusions  from  certain  selected  passages, 
and  fails  to  find  place  in  its  system  for  other  passages 
which  point  to  a  contrary  view. 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  181 

The  Bible  was  not  intended  to  furnish  exact  informa- 
tion about  the  future,  nor  to  enable  us  to  say  precisely 
what  God  will  finally  do  with  the  bad  people  or  with 
those  whose  characters  are  indeterminate,  whose  moral 
unripeness  is  such  that  they  have  never  been  competent 
to  decide  the  momentous  question  of  final  character  and 
eternal  destiny.  The  Bible  was  intended  to  make 
known  to  us  the  offer  of  His  grace  and  truth,  as  aids  in 
holy  living  now;  to  guide  us  in  the  way  of  such  right- 
eous activity  as  He  can  approve;  to  give  the  stimulus 
that  comes  from  the  overbrooding  realities  of  a  spiritual 
world:  and  with  these  aids  to  right  conduct  clearly  in 
our  possession,  we  may  go  about  our  Christian  lives  leav- 
ing the  future  in  His  great  'hands.  When  we  are  asked 
what  will  finally  be  done  with  the  heathen  who  have 
neither  accepted  nor  rejected  Christ,  because  they  never 
heard  of  Him,  we  need  nott  hesitate  to  say,  "We  do  not 
know:  we  have  no  idea."  Why  should  we  know ?  What 
will  finally  be  done  with  those  about  us  who  are  not  to- 
tally or  irreclaimably  bad,  and  yet  who  die  and  give  no 
sign  of  evangelical  repentance  and  conversion?  We  do 
not  know.  Why  should  we  know?  That  field  of  in- 
quiry is  both  wide  and  attractive,  but  we  shall  do  well 
"to  be  faithful  to  our  own  ignorance."  The  cause  of 
pure  and  undefiled  religion  is  never  advanced  by  our 
pretending  to  know  what  we  do  not  know.  I  have  no 
complete  map  of  the  future  to  hang  upon  the  wall  of  my 
study  or  in  my  church.  I  need  none.  I  prefer  to  hang 
there  the  portrait  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  whom  we  have  to 
do  both  here  and  hereafter,  and  thai  Judge  of  all  the 
earth  will  do  right. 


182  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

We  find  ourselves  on  unsafe  ground  whenever  we  try 
to  go  beyond  a  few  simple  principles.  "Surely  I  know 
that  it  shall  be  well  with  them  that  fear  God,  but  it  shall 
not  be  well  with  the  wicked."  "The  way  of  the 
transgressor  is  hard."  Any  one  can  see  that  'here. 
The  kind  hands  of  the  Almighty  made  it  hard,  ex- 
pressly for  our  warning.  It  grows  harder  the  longer 
men  travel  it.  We  have  nothing  that  leads  us  to 
think  that  this  will  ever  be  changed.  If,  at  any  time, 
any  where,  unrighteousness  should  succeed  in  being  per- 
manently prosperous,  there  God  would  have  ceased  to  be 
the  moral  ruler  of  His  world.  We  are  accustomed  to 
think  of  the  hard  way  of  transgression  chiefly  with  ref- 
erence to  sins  against  the  body  or  coarse  crimes  against 
the  social  order.  But  we  live  under  spiritual  laws  as 
well.  The  same  God  who  commanded  us  not  to  kill, 
steal  nor  commit  adultery,  also  commanded  us  to  live 
lives  of  trust,  reverence,  prayer  and  self  denial.  The 
way  of  the  transgressor  against  these  laws  shall  likewise 
be  hard.  As  to  the  final  outcome  of  it  all,  I  do  not 
need  to  know.  I  fall  back  on  my  confidence  that  "the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  will  do  right."  What  that  right 
shall  finally  be,  I  must  leave  to  Him.  When  the  facts 
are  all  in  and  when  my  moral  judgment  has  grown  suf- 
ficiently mature  to  see  things  as  they  are,  I  am  confi- 
dent that  I  shall  see  that  it  is  right.  With  that  high 
confidence  in  the  moral  character  of  God,  with  the  ab- 
solute certainty  of  the  present  and  unending  benefits 
of  righteousness,  and  with  the  awful  visions  of  the  re- 
sults of  transgression  which  I  see  in  the  world  and  in  the 
Scripture  alike,  I  need  no  further  program. 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  183 

Indeed,  these  definite  programs  of  the  future  da 
harm.  Credulous  congregations  have  sometimes  been 
taught  many  things  about  the  future  of  which  we  can 
not  be  sure,  and  men  have  been  finding  out  that  we  are 
not  sure,  simply  because  it  has  not  pleased  Him  who 
knows  to  put  the  information  in  our  hands;  and  as  a 
result  they  have  been  led  to  distrust  even  those  parts 
of  the  message  which  are  beyond  a  peradventure.  We 
thus  lose  our  power  of  speaking  with  authority  and  ef- 
fect about  the  ascertained  moral  realities  in  tile  case. 
As  I  wrote  these  words,  I  turned  to  a  volume  of  ser- 
mons. They  were  not  preached  by  some  obscure,  un- 
taught, untrained  man  on  a  frontier  station,  without 
books  or  other  aids  to  scholarship  at  his  command. 
They  were  preached  in  the  city  of  London  to  a  great 
congregation  of  people  by  one  who  stood  foremost 
among  the  preachers  of  this  generation,  as  judged  by 
the  hearing  he  secured  and  by  the  clear  evidences  of 
usefulness.  He  was  great  and  good,  not  because  of, 
but  in  spite  of,  some  points  in  his  theological  teaching. 
I  refer  to  Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon,  and  these  were  his 
words:  "Thou  wilt  sleep  in  dust  a  little  while.  "When 
thou  diest  thy  soul  will  be  tormented  alone — that  will 
be  a  hell  for  it — but  at  the  day  of  judgment  the  body 
will  join  thy  soul,  and  then  thou  wilt  have  twin  hells; 
body  and  soul  shall  be  together  each  brimful  of  pain, 
thy  soul  sweating  in  its  inmost  pores  drops  of  blood, 
and  thy  body  from  head  to  foot  suffused  with  agony; 
conscience,  judgment,  memory,  all  tortured;  but  more 
thy  head  tormented  with  racking  pains,  thine  eyes  start- 
ing from  their  sockets  with  sights  of  -blood  and  woe, 
thine  ears  tormented  with  'sullen  moans  and  hollow 


184  THE   MAIN  POINTS. 

groans  and  shrieks  of  tortured  ghosts';  thine  heart  beat- 
ing high  with  fever;  thy  pulse  rattling  at  an  enormous 
rate  in  agony;  thy  limbs  cracking  like  the  martyrs  in 
the  fire,  and  yet  unburnt;  thyself  put  in  a  vessel  of  hot 
oil;  pained,  yet  coming  out  undestroyed;  all  thy  veins 
becoming  a  road  for  the  hot  feet  of  pain  to  travel  on; 
every  nerve  a  string  on  which  the  devil  shall  ever  play 
his  diabolical  tune  of  Hell's  unutterable  lament;  thy 
soul  forever  and  ever  aching,  and  the  body  palpitating 
in  unison  with  thy  soul.  .  .  .  Many  of  you  will  go 
away  and  laugh  and  call  me  as  I  remember  once  being 
called  before,  'a  hell-fire  parson.'  Well,  go;  but  you 
will  see  the  hell-fire  preacher  one  day  in  heaven,  perhaps, 
and  you  yourselves  will  be  cast  out;  and  looking  down 
thence  with  reproving  glance,  it  may  be  that  I  shall  re- 
mind you  that  you  heard  the  Word  and  listened  not  to 
it.  Ah,  men,  it  is  a  light  thing  to  hear  it;  it  will  be  a 
hard  thing  to  bear  it.  You  listen  to  me  now  unmoved; 
it  will  be  harder  work  when  death  gets  hold  of  you  and 
you  lie  roasting  in  the  fire."  * 

All  this  from  one  of  the  most  celebrated  preachers  of 
our  time  in  all  the  English-speaking  world!  It  was  not 
a  hasty,  hurried  utterance  that  a  man  preaching  without 
manuscript  might  unguardedly  make.  He  wrote  it  down 
with  his  own  right  hand,  sent  it  to  the  printer,  corrected 
the  proof,  and  published  it  for  wide  circulation  as  his 
deliberate  conviction.  It  is  not  the  gross  materialism 
and  cruelty  of  the  conception  that  offends  us  so  much 
as  the  dogmatic  assumption  in  it  all.  Where  did  he 
find  out  all  that?  How  did  he  know?  Where  did  he 
learn  that  men  will  be  "roasted  in  literal  fire,"  plunged 

1  Spurgeon's  Sermons,  Vol.  II,  p.  275. 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  185 

now  and  then  "into  vessels  of  hot  oil,"  with  nerves  ex- 
posed and  used  by  the  devil  as  fiddle-strings  upon  which 
to  play  his  fiendish  music?  Where  did  he  get  the  idea 
that  he  in  heaven  would  be  permitted  to  stand,  in  a 
strange  attitude  for  a  man  of  Christian  compassion 
surely,  on  the  battlements  of  heaven  and  look  "with  re- 
proving glance/'  shaking  his  finger  at  tormented  souls, 
and  saying,  "I  told  you  so."  This  is  certainly  not  the 
atmosphere  of  the  New  Testament.  He  knew  nothing 
about  any  of  those  things,  and  the  picture  is  a  bit  of 
crude  and  awful  mythology.  The  inhumanity  of  it 
makes  men  shudder,  but  still  worse  the  raw,  dogmatic 
ignorance  and  assumption  touching  the  destinies  of 
those  identical  men  gathered  there  before  him,  would 
tend  to  drive  hundreds  off  into  unbelief. 

Without  making  bold  to  know,  what  apparently  God 
did  not  intend  us  to  know,  about  the  final  destiny  of 
those  who  persist  in  refusing  His  will  concerning  them, 
there  is  enough  of  solid  ground  to  stand  upon  to  make 
us  realize  our  responsibility  to  God  for  our  conduct. 
"We  shall  all  be  made  manifest  before  the  judgment 
seat  of  Christ."  Judgment  day  will  be  a  revelation  of 
what  we  have  become  by  our  own  acts  and  choices. 
"The  seed  sown  here  will  naturally  determine  the  fruit 
to  be  gathered  hereafter."  The  absoluteness  of  moral 
law;  the  fact  that  'men  must  reap  what  they  sow,  here 
and  hereafter;  the  necessity  of  personal  righteousness 
for  the  attainment  of  peace  and  happiness;  the  stern 
demand  that  every  one  shall  seek  holiness,  without 
which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord;  the  awfulness  of  dis- 
obedience to  a  loving  Father;  the  baseness  and  ingrati- 
tude of  trifling  with  Him,  or  of  turning  one's  back  upon 


186  THE   MAIN   POINTS. 

the  pleading  mercy  of  Jesus  Christ;  the  terrible  chas- 
tisements which  the  Scriptures  tell  us  plainly  shall  be 
visited  upon  inhuman  and  godless  lives — these  plain 
words  of  holy  writ,  based  on  ascertainable  realities,  are 
enough  to  bring  out  the  seriousness  of  living,  and  a  deep 
sense  of  personal  accountability  to  a  Moral  Judge,  with- 
out conjuring  up  such  lurid  fairy  stories  and  mythol- 
ogy as  sometimes  find  place  in  evangelistic  appeals. 

Perhaps  I  preach  the  positive  hopeful  side  of  Chris- 
tianity too  much,  and  do  not  dwell  enough  on  the 
darker  things  of  warning  and  judgment.  Perhaps  I 
look  altogether  too  much  on  the  bright  side.  I  confess 
my  sympathies  have  been  with  the  men  whose  message 
is  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand,"  rather  than 
with  those  who  go  about  saying,  the  kingdom  of  hell  is 
at  hand.  The  former  was  the  message  of  Jesus  and  the 
one  He  put  on  the  lips  of  His  apostles  when  He  sent 
them  out.  There  are  many  things  to  give  us  hope  and 
confidence.  If  wise  generals  never  fight  unless  there  is 
a  reasonable  prospect  of  victory,  we  may  be  sure  God 
would  never  have  undertaken  this  fight  with  evil,  this 
contest  with  the  struggling,  rebellious  will  of  man,  un- 
less there  was  a  good  prospect  of  success.  He  will  sub- 
due this  world  to  Himself.  He  will  establish  right- 
eousness. He  will  surely  bring  the  great  bulk  of  His 
children  into  His  own  house  and  arms.  There  will  be 
cowards  and  deserters,  alas,  who  will  refuse  to  march 
under  His  banners  or  to  wear  the  name  of  His 
Son — of  these  the  Scriptures  give  nothing  but  a  solemn 
account!  Eetribution  follows  upon  disobedience  nat- 
urally and  therefore  inevitably.  We  have  no  warrant 
for  supposing  that  it  can  ever  be  otherwise  in  a  universe 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  187 

controlled  by  a  Moral  Being.  Therefore,  punishment 
will  last  as  long  as  sin  lasts,  and  nothing  but  holiness 
can  ever  see  the  face  and  share  the  joy  of  the  Father. 
We  may,  through  our  strong  faith  in  the  integrity  of 
God,  in  which  Jesus  has  established  us,  feel  sure  that 
every  human  being  will  have  the  fullest  opportunity  to 
attain  the  object  of  his  creation  which  the  Almighty, 
who  desires  that  end  above  all  things,  can  give  him. 
We  may  still  further  be  assured  that  every  human  be- 
ing will  receive  from  the  providential  ordering  of  cir- 
cumstances, from  the  revelation  God  has  made  and  will 
make  of  Himself,  and  from  the  direct  persuasions  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  who  goeth  where  He  listeth,  all  the  im- 
pelling influence  to  turn  him  to  holiness  that  his  nature 
can  bear  and  still  remain  free  to  choose.  And  we  may 
be  sure  that  no  human  being  will  be  given  over  to  perish 
or  to  suffer  endless  loss  and  pain,  while  God  can  see  any 
possibility  of  his  salvation.  These  three  great  confi- 
dences, not  original  with  me,  but  urged  by  many  writers, 
as  axioms  of  judgment  taken  from  the  character  of 
God  revealed  through  Him  who  came  to  seek  and  to 
save  that  which  was  lost,  fill  us  with  courage,  and  they 
give  us  a  Gospel  of  good  news  for  all  the  children  of 
men. 


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